Melanie Florence

“This series offers solid glimpses of faraway places, more poetry than a tour guide . . . evocative and inviting” – School Library Journal Good morning! Bonjour! Tānisi! Spend a day in Canada. Eat soft crepes with sticky maple syrup, play with atimwak in the snow and cache-cache in the park, and zip and zoom around the ice rink. Even learn words in French and Cree with pronunciation guides throughout the story.   Part of the Barefoot Books Our World series with over 200k copies sold Written by Canadian author Melanie Florence and illustrated by Canadian illustrator Carey Sookocheff Endnotes provide more insights into life in Canada

Readers follow along step-by-step as Benjamin plants and cares for his garden and imagines the harvest to come. Benjamin loves springtime. The grass grows bright green, the birds sing sweet songs and, best of all, Benjamin and his mother start their garden. In just the right order, they plant mahtâmin (corn), pîmiciwacis (beans), and osawipak (squash) for Three Sisters Soup. They plant strawberries to serve with bannock, then zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers. Benjamin and his mom lovingly tend to the garden and watch it grow into a plentiful harvest with enough to share. Throughout the whole summer, Benjamin dreams about the fall, when they’ll have all the ingredients for a feast – and everyone will be invited!In this heartwarming story, award-winning author Melanie Florence evocatively portrays the pleasures and rewards of growing and sharing food. The steps of the gardening process – digging holes, planting seeds, watering – are carefully described, and the yearly cycle of growing, harvesting, eating and then starting again the next year is emphasized. Special attention is paid to the tradition of planting corn, beans and squash together so that each plant by its nature helps the others grow. Benjamin and his mother use Cree words throughout the story, and a pronunciation guide is included at the back of the book for further inquiry. Vivid illustrations by Hawlii Pichette make this a perfect follow-up to the author and illustrator duo’s previous book, Benjamin’s Thunderstorm.