Review by Booklist Review
Ages 4^-7. On summer Saturdays, young Laura and her family get up before dawn, pack their truck with fresh vegetables, and drive to the Lexington, Kentucky, Farmers' Market. There they set up shop on folding tables, working hard until midmorning, when Laura takes a break to explore with her friend Betsy. The girls find a dollar--enough for ice-cream treats--and then return to their families to pack up and drive home. Johnson's rich acrylic artwork spans the time frame of day, highlighting the blues of early morning, gold tones of midday, and purples of late afternoon and evening. Of special note is the center double-page spread, which opens up to a four-panel poster depicting Laura's stops as she strolls through the booths on her way to meet Betsy. A good choice for summer story hours, this will also make a fine addition to primary social studies units. --Kay Weisman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2A farm family makes their weekly trip to sell produce at a nearby city market. Laura helps at the vegetable stand before meeting a friend. The striking acrylic paintings are the strongest part of the book. Johnson starts off with the cool colors of the early dawn as Laura and her family load the truck for their trip to the city. The hues brighten to the full-light noon of a summer celebration, with colorful umbrellas and food for sale. The center of the book opens out to a wordless four page spread showing Laura taking in the sights of the market from artists and craftspeople to other farmers. Unfortunately, the text is drab compared to the vivid pictures. Laura finds her friend, who is surrounded by the colorful flowers her mother sells. The text describes the girl "putting rubber bands around bunches of dried stuff," without providing any more detail. The girls' big adventure is to find a dollar bill and spend it on ice cream. This event hardly needed the unique backdrop of the market. The language never conveys the sights and sounds and smells of the setting. Eve Bunting's Market Day (HarperCollins, 1996) and Katrin Hyman Tchana's Oh, No, Toto (Scholastic, 1997) are better titles that take advantage of the market setting.Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Market day begins at dawn for Laura and her family. They load their fresh produce on their truck and travel to the city, where Laura helps set up. Later she meets her 'Saturday friend,' another farm girl, at the marketplace. Textured color paintings rendered on canvas convey the bustle of the city market, and a four-page fold-out presents a panoramic view of the market. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
One summer Saturday in the life of Laura, a farmer's daughter who accompanies her parents and older brother to Lexington, Kentucky, where they sell their produce at an open-air market. They load their pickup before dawn and return after dark. In between, Laura stays busy refilling containers at the stand, with some time off to play with Betsy, her Saturday friend, whose mother runs a flower stall. A double-sized foldout spread shows Laura exploring four parts of the crowded, colorful market. From Johnson (with Celeste Lewis, Lost, 1996), an appealing story of a hardworking family and a little girl who knows how to do her job and have fun at the same time. Add it to a growing shelf of recent stories about markets: Nancy White Carlstrom's Baby-O (1992), Omar Castañeda's Abuela's Weave (1993), and Pat Mora's Uno, Dos, Tres: One, Two, Three (1996). (Picture book. 4-7)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
