Spuds

Ma's been working so hard, she doesn't have much left over. So her three kids decide to do some work on their own. In the dark of night, they steal into their rich neighbor's potato fields in hopes of collecting the strays that have been left to rot. They dig flat-bellied in the dirt, hiding from passing cars, and drag a sack of spuds through the frost back home. But in the light, the sad truth is revealed: their bag is full of stones! Ma is upset when she sees what they've done, and makes them set things right. But in a surprise twist, they learned they have helped the farmer (contd.)

Ma's been working so hard, she doesn't have much left over. So her three kids decide to do some work on their own. In the dark of night, they steal into their rich neighbor's potato fields in hopes of collecting the strays that have been left to rot.

They dig flat-bellied in the dirt, hiding from passing cars, and drag a sack of spuds through the frost back home. But in the light, the sad truth is revealed: their bag is full of stones!

Ma is upset when she sees what they've done, and makes them set things right. But in a surprise twist, they learned they have helped the farmer and are invited to do this every year. And with love and pride, Ma makes the kids what they wanted all along -- a big pan of her wonderful mouthwatering spuds, sliced thin as fingernails and fried up crusty brown , hot and sparkling with salt.

Only Karen Hesse could construct such a delicate and delicious narrative, filled with stunning images and overflowing with love. Wendy Watson's glowing, primitive-styled art is a perfect compliment to the text.

Awards and Honors for CATS IN KRASINSKI SQUARE by Karen Hess and Wendy Watson

ALA Notable Children's Book

NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book

Sydney Taylor Award - Honor Book

IRA Notable Book for a Global Society

CCBC Choices

Koret Jewish Book Award

Pare

Publishers Weekly

Not since Five Little Peppers or, perhaps, The Waltons has poverty been quite so romantic as Hesse and Watson (previously paired with Hesse for The Cats in Krasinski Square) make it seem in this nostalgic book, narrated by the middle of three fatherless children. As their ma leaves to work the night shift, the three sneak out to glean potatoes left on a neighbor's field after the harvester has been through it. Hesse leans on readers to appreciate her use of language: "some high-beam car came flying 'round the bend" and the children dive down, "three tater-snatchers, flat-bellied in the dirt, till the tire buzz faded. Then, rising up in the moonlight, we commenced to cockadoodlin', revelin' in the pure pleasure of a close call." Watson's art roots this story pleasingly: inside their house, her characters look neat and flattened, the humble cousins of Kate Greenaway; the palette and props say Great Depression or earlier. The children's illicit harvest carries with it a moral, of course, and the narrator eventually realizes that their mother's love is so big that it "could turn even three little spuds like us into something mighty fine." Together, the story and pictures create an appetite, then satisfy it. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)