Fresh Delicious: Poems from the Farmers’ Market
Written by Irene Latham
Illustrated by Mique Moriuchi
WordSong  3/08/2016
978-1-62979-103-6
32 pages    Ages 4—8

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“The cucumbers at the farmers’ market are
fresh.
They are also a fleet of green
submarines in a wicker sea.

“Blueberries are
delicious.
They also burst in your mouth like
flavor-filled fireworks.

“Playful and imaginative, these poems will inspire you to see fruits and vegetables—and the world around you—in fresh and delicious ways.” [INSIDE JACKET]

Review
Fresh Delicious contains twenty-one poems about shopping for fruits and vegetables at a farmers’ market. The series opens when the market opens. You choose your basket—called sway until you fill it—and then visit the various stalls holding the fruits and vegetables. For each item, Latham devised often-humorous poems filled with marvelously descriptive words. Her writing will resonate with young and old alike.
Beginning with tomatoes, carefully loaded onto the first table, Latham writes, tomatoes are “round like a baseball” and “red like a fire truck.” Boys will love the reference to a baseball and a fire truck. One of my favorite vegetables, the green bell pepper becomes a bell, when turned upside-down. The sweet peppers rings out “a sunset-colored song. Ding dong!”

Moriuchi’s acrylic paint and collage illustrations help children visualize Latham’s words. A hedgehog holds three tomatoes flying like balloons. A crocodile, a pig, and a bear scoot along the ocean floor in their green cucumber submarine just ahead of the submerged dog, giraffe, and elephant. Pirates open a treasure chest and find a “trove of farmer’s gold.” Not quite a dozen, but enough for two hungry swashbucklers. Moriuchi’s use of recognizable animals helps children understand and appreciate Latham’s poetry. His images are fun and pleasing to the eye.
Latham’s kid-friendly poems use kid appropriate words. Each easily rolls off a reader’s tongue, making sounds pleasing to a child’s ear. She knows how to grab and hold a child’s attention. Curious children, once unwilling to try something new, may take one bite when they hear pole beans are “schooling fish” and wild honey is “bee-kissed” ready to make “our tongues buzz with pleasure.” How difficult it will be to turn down blueberries that “burst like flavor-filled fireworks in waffles and muffins.” Latham brings fruit and vegetables alive, as only she can.

Back matter includes recipes.

FRESH DELICIOUS: POEMS FROM THE FARMERS’ MARKET. Text copyright © 2016 by Irene Latham. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Mique Moriuchi. Reproduced by permission of the publisher,  WordSong, Honesdale, PA.

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Reprinted with permission from FRESH DELICIOUS: POEMS FROM THE FARMERS’ MARKET © 2016 by Irene Latham, WordSong, an imprint of Highlights, Illustrations © 2016 by Mique Moriuchi.

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Copyright © 2016 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews. All Rights Reserved

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Fresh Delicious: Poems from the Farmers’ Market
Written by Irene Latham
Illustrated by Mique Moriuchi
WordSong 3/08/2016
9781629791036