Seed Savers: Treasure
By Sandra Smith
Hi! Have you ever discovered a new thing or found out that something was there and you had no idea? Well, that’s kind of what it was like for Clare and Dante when they found out about fruits and vegetables.
Clare and Dante grew up in a world without fruits, vegetables, meat… All they had were five basic “food groups”: Proteins, Vitees, Sweeties, Carbos, and Snacks. They came in the form of squares and circles. It would’ve tasted disgusting to you or me who is used to meat or vegetables or eggs or even bread! And growing your own fruits and vegetables was banned – you went to jail for a long time if you were caught with any sort of vegetable or fruit.
But one day, Clare meets a woman named Ana in church. Ana calls herself a “Seed Saver.” She saves and preserves seeds for fruits and (as Clare and Dante call them) vegeTABLES. Ana has decided that she must teach Clare and Dante and their friend, Lily, about plants. She teaches them everything they know, but one day a person from the “GRIM” (a team that works together to stop people who are growing plants) sees them with Ana and Ana is afraid that they will start tracking the children down because Ana once got caught with a whole bunch of illegal plants. So, Ana decides it’s safe for them to come back when the carrots that she gave them have sprouted.
They go back to Ana and she decides that it’s not safe for them to meet together any more. But, strangely enough, Ana wasn’t at church the next Sunday, and church was one of her favorite places to be! Clare and Dante were suspicious, but Lily said they were overreacting and that Ana was probably just sick or something. Clare and Dante didn’t go to church the next Sunday because their mother decided that they should go to the swimming pool instead.
Then, one day, Clare and Dante got home from their tutoring session and Mama was gone! She called and told Clare that GRIM had showed up at their house and found an illegal tomato plant and that she had been sent to jail. She reassured Clare that it was probably all rubbish and that she would be sent home the next day. But Clare and Dante knew the truth – it had been THEIR illegal tomato that was planted! Clare and Dante decided that they had to leave to find other Seed Savers and, in the process, to find a place where growing fruits and vegetables was legal.
What will happen on their dangerous journey out into the wilderness? Will Clare and Dante ever see their mother again? Will they succeed in escaping and finding somewhere where farming is legal? As I always say, read the book to find out!
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 0
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor – zero having no yucky-lovey parts in it and five having major yucky-lovey parts): 0
I give this book 5 wands.
I love how this author showed me how great it was that we have fruits, vegetables and meat and not fake food like “Vitees” or “Carbos.” I had never really given a thought to how lucky we are to have good food.
Source: Review Copy
Here’s a little information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day:
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.
MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board!
*View our 2019 Medallion Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-
*View our 2019 MCBD Author Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-2eNMedallion Level Sponsors
Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org.
Super Platinum: Make A Way Media
GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV, Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press,
SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls,
BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift, T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on board
Honorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini,
Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Lori DeMonia, Claudia Schwam, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC
We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.
Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts
A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup,Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground
TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual @McChildsBookDay Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party ( a prize every 5 minutes!). GO HERE for more details.
FREE RESOURCES From MCBD
Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta
Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/
Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.