Phyllis Root

"For an anywhere farm, / here's all that you need: / soil and sunshine, / some water, a seed. / Fat seed or skinny seed, / pointy or round, / tenderly tuck it / down into the ground. / Then you watch and you wait. / You water. You weed. / Your seed will sprout out / at its own seedy speed." And so begins this gentle rhyming tale meant to inspired young people to start gardens wherever they are: in pots in their apartments, on city lots - anywhere and everywhere!

A lovely picture-book show more celebration of green spaces and community gardens, Anywhere Farm reminds me of such titles as DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan's City Green, or Peter Brown's The Curious Garden, which also advocate turning concrete jungles into greener, healthier, more natural places. The format here makes for an excellent read-aloud, while the artwork, done in mixed media by G. Brian Karas, is cute and colorful, depicting a diverse range of people getting involved in a diverse range of gardening projects. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories about gardening and growing things, and about engaging with the wider community around these issues. show less

Minnesota author and illustrator Phyllis Root and Betsy Bowen, who collaborated on three subsequent picture books—One North Star: A Counting Book (2016), Plant a Pocket of Prairie (2016) and The Lost Forest (2019)—made their debut as a team in this 2010 picture book about northern Minnesota's Big Bog. The text describes this unique ecosystem, created by slowly decomposing sphagnum moss, and characterized by acidic water that only allows certain animals and plants to flourish. These show more animals and plants—Labrador tea, leatherleaf, pitcher plants, tamarack and black spruce trees, great gray owls, black-backed woodpeckers, hermit thrush, wood frogs and bog lemmings—are described as well, while the narrative follows the slow bubbling of methane gas beneath the bog's surface, methane that will eventually emerge in a big belch. The book closes with six pages of back matter giving more information...

Big Belching Bog is, appropriately enough, quite big—it's dimensions are large, even for a picture book—and it pairs an informative and engaging text with lovely woodcut artwork. It is the second book I have read from Root and Bowen, after Plant a Pocket of Prairie, and unlike that other book, which my local library owns, had to be tracked down using interlibrary loan. I found much of the information here fascinating—for instance, the fact that a number of plants in the bog (round-leaved sundew, pitcher plants) eat insects; or that Labrador tea retains its leaves year-round, so it doesn't have to grow new ones—and thought the illustrations were gorgeous. I love woodcut art, and Bowen never disappoints. Although the bog specifically being explored is in Minnesota, and therefore has local appeal, many of the characteristics described are common to bogs worldwide, so I think young readers interested in this kind of ecosystem, or in nature in general, will find it very interesting. It is to them that I would recommend this one, as well as to any child planning to visit a bog. show less

Minnesota author/illustrator team Phyllis Root and Betsy Bowen, who collaborated on three previous picture books—Big Belching Bog in 2010, and One North Star: A Counting Book and Plant a Pocket of Prairie in 2016—joined forces again for this look at the "Lost Forty"—a patch of old growth forest in Minnesota that was surveyed incorrectly in 1882, leading it to escape the deforestation experienced in most of the rest of that state. The narrative described the history of surveying in the show more US, the process of surveying—what the surveyors needed and what they did—and how this lucky mistake, in which the Lost Forty was marked on the map as a lake, allowed this patch of forest to survive, eventually becoming part of the Chippewa National Forest. The book closes with extensive back matter, giving more information about old growth forests—where to find them in Minnesota and the flora and fauna living there—about surveyors and their tools and vocabulary, and about the survey mistake that saved this natural wonder...

Published in 2019 by the University of Minnesota Press, which also published the three previous titles from this author/illustrator team, The Lost Forest is a title I had to track down through interlibrary loan, as the only book by Root and Bowen my local libraries owns is Plant a Pocket of Prairie. It is the third book from these creators I have read, and I look forward to tracking down the fourth, One North Star: A Counting Book. In any case, I found this one immensely engaging, loving both the story and information presented by Root and the lovely artwork from Bowen. I am a great fan of her woodcut illustrations, and these lived up to my expectations! I found myself thinking, while reading this one, how fortunate that "mistake" was, that spared the Lost Forty (as it is known in Minnesota), and imagining scenarios in which it was deliberate, either due to some desire on the surveyors' part to protect it, or through some other force. A few story ideas have already occurred to me! Given my love of Bowen's work, I've been tracking down and reading a number of Minnesota-focused titles recently, and I am glad of it, despite having spent almost no time in that state. But the trend certainly has made me think I should seek out similar titles about my current home state of New Jersey. Recommended to young nature lovers, or to picture book readers interested in history and its sometimes quirky and unusual stories. show less

Minnesota author/illustrator team Phyllis Root and Betsy Bowen, who have collaborated on three other picture books—Big Belching Bog in 2010, One North Star: A Counting Book in 2016 and The Lost Forest in 2019—join forces in this second 2016 title to explore the prairie ecosystem. Specifically, how it has mostly disappeared from their home state, and how it might be brought back, in part, by the planting of prairie flora, which will in turn encourage the return of prairie fauna. The show more poetic narrative describes planting different species of plant, and the various animals this might encourage and support. Extensive back matter discusses the historical loss of prairie, offers instructions on how to plant a pocket of prairie, discusses the animals and plants mentioned in the main narrative, and describes where in Minnesota one can still find prairie...

Plant a Pocket of Prairie is a lovely book, pairing an informative and inspirational text with absolutely gorgeous artwork. I appreciated everything about it, from the text, artwork and layout, to the educational back matter, and the local focus. That being said, I have to agree with the friend whose review alerted me to this book, some years ago, that the latter—the local focus—is a potential problem. The book is published by the University of Minnesota Press, and is clearly intended to be read in the context of that state's history and ecology. While the section in the back matter does encourage the reader to do some research, before planting prairie willy-nilly—something that would hopefully highlight if such activity would be inappropriate—I do think the assumption here is that the reader lives somewhere were prairie should be reintroduced. Given the national readership of the book—I checked it out of my public library in central New Jersey, where there has never been any prairie—this might confuse some young children. While I can't really fault the author for not broadening her focus, given the fact that this is so clearly a local/regional project, I do think it might have been nice to include something in that section, to the effect that if the reader is living in a non-prairie region, they might research local fauna they can reintroduce in their own locale.

Leaving aside this critique, this is one I strongly recommend to young nature lovers, with the proviso that the adults in their life—parents and/or educators—should emphasize that this is really a book about Minnesota. show less