By Julie Tomascik
Editor

A new children’s book takes young readers on a journey through agriculture and introduces them to the many types of farms and the people who grow food and raise animals.

If You Live on a Farm, written by children’s author Kari Ann Gonzalez and illustrated by Marie Hermansson, highlights the diversity of agriculture through colorful illustrations and storytelling.

Gonzalez grew up around Sacramento, California and drew inspiration from the variety of farms and ranches around her, including tomato fields, almond orchards, strawberry farms and flower farms.

“A lot of kids see depictions of farms as being a big red barn and a dairy cow,” Gonzalez said. “And so, coming from a largely agricultural area in California, there’s such diversity and variety.”

The book features traditional farms and ranches, as well as mushroom farms, alpaca farms and aquaculture farms.

Gonzalez said she wanted children to gain a better understanding of agriculture and where their food comes from.

The idea also grew from her experiences raising her own children. She noticed many of their friends associated food with grocery stores rather than the farms where it was grown.

“I wanted to make sure that our youngest readers, even those who live in the city, really get to experience accurate agriculture,” she said.

The book includes an educational activity that encourages children to try growing their own food by using kitchen scraps. Instructions explain how to regrow celery, green onions or romaine lettuce and introduce basic growing needs such as water, sunlight and soil.

Gonzalez hopes the activity helps children connect what they read to hands-on experiences.

If Your Live on a Farm was released Nov. 3 through Feeding Minds Press and is available through the publisher’s website and Amazon.

Feeding Minds Press is a project of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. The mission of the foundation is to build awareness and understanding of agriculture through education. The goal of Feeding Minds Press is to publish accurate and engaging books about agriculture that connect readers to where their food comes from and to who grows it.

View a list of accurate ag books available for purchase through Feeding Minds Press.

Click here for additional classroom resources from Texas Farm Bureau.