It's vital for black children to see themselves represented in an uplifting and positive way! Reading helps spark child’s imagination and stimulate curiosity and opportunity to see themselves in the book.
Today, we're highlighting kids books for all ages written by Black authors focused on Black kids gardening and farming!
Green Green : A Community Gardening Story
by Marie Lamba and Baldev Lamba
Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table
by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Will Allen is no ordinary farmer. A former basketball star, he's as tall as his truck, and he can hold a cabbage--or a basketball--in one hand. But what is most special about Farmer Will is that he can see what others can't see. When he looked at an abandoned city lot in Milwaukee he saw a huge table, big enough to feed the whole world.
Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie: A Story about Edna Lewis
by Robbin Gourley
Long before the natural-food movement gained popularity, Edna Lewis championed purity of ingredients, regional cuisine, and farm-to-table eating. She was a chef when female chefs—let alone African American female chefs—were few and far between.
City Green
By DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
Right in the middle of Marcy’s city block is a vacant lot, littered and forlorn. Sometimes just looking at it makes Marcy feel sad. Then one spring, Marcy has a beautiful idea: Instead of a useless lot, why not a green and growing space for everyone to enjoy?
Flower Garden
By Eve Bunting
A city girl and her father buy plants, potting soil, and a window box at the supermarket, ride the bus to their apartment, and put together a colorful gift for the child’s mother.
How a Seed Grows
By Helene J. Jordan
Once, a long time ago, the oak tree in your backyard could have fit your pocket! How can a little acorn grow so big? This book shares the secret of seeds. With the right combination of water, sun, and soil, a seed will send roots down into the ground and shoot leaves up into the sunlight. Seeds can grow into flowers or vegetables or even trees. Look inside to learn the simple steps for turning a packet of seeds into a garden.
Lola Plants a Garden
By Anna McQuinn
How does your garden grow? Book-loving Lola is inspired by a collection of garden poems that she reads with her mommy. She wants to plant her own garden of beautiful flowers, so she and Mommy go to the library to check out books about gardening. They choose their flowers and buy their seeds. They dig and plant. And then they wait. Lola finds it hard to wait for her flowers to grow, but she spends the time creating her own flower book. Soon she has a garden full of sunflowers and invites all of her friends for cakes and punch and a story amongst the flowers.
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
By Leah Penniman
In 1920, 14 percent of all land-owning US farmers were black. Today less than 2 percent of farms are controlled by black people―a loss of over 14 million acres and the result of discrimination and dispossession. While farm management is among the whitest of professions, farm labor is done by people of color disproportionately live in “food apartheid” neighborhoods and suffer from diet-related illness. The system is built on stolen land and stolen labor and needs a redesign.
Freedom Farmers
By Monica M. White
In May 1967, internationally renowned activist Fannie Lou Hamer purchased forty acres of land in the Mississippi Delta, launching the Freedom Farms Cooperative (FFC). A community-based rural and economic development project, FFC would grow to over 600 acres, offering a means for local sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and domestic workers to pursue community wellness, self-reliance, and political resistance.
The original article was posted on biggreen.org.