Back in September, my son and I launched the 100 Book Challenge, where we decided to set a goal of reading 100 books by Christmas. I need to update our list a bit, but we’ve been plugging away, reading a book or two nearly every night. Last night? It was Henry and the Hidden Veggie Garden, a book sent to us by the folks at Hidden Valley, who just happen to make my son’s favorite salad dressing.
The GOOD: The pictures in this book, particularly the farm, the sunset and the blue skies are positively gorgeous. It is a story that your child can easily get into, and Nicholas sat and listened to the whole story, even chiming in on some parts about which vegetables he likes and doesn’t.
The BAD: It’s a little hard to track down a copy since it was available for a limited time.
The MOM VERDICT
Cate says: I first found out about Kimberly Williams-Paisley when she starred in Father of the Bride many, many years ago. She went on to make Father of the Bride 2, amongst many other movies, and then her popular television show, According to Jim. Now married to country singer Brad Paisley and mom to Huck and another baby on the way, she’s one of those down-to-earth stars that you can’t help but look up to, so it’s no surprise that she is behind this book … an upbeat solid story with a wonderful underlying message. She wrote it, along with her father, after being inspired by her son William Huckleberry. The character in the story, Henry, isn’t a big fan of eating vegetables, so his mom sends him off to his aunt’s farm for a few days, and he comes back a veggie loving, garden planting kid.
My son could definitely relate to this story and was fully engaged with it from beginning to end. He laughed when Henry hid his vegetables underneath his pizza in the beginning, and when Henry said he loved vegetables at the end of the story, Nicholas chimed in with “me too!” Although sometimes I think he doesn’t eat enough vegetables, after reading the book, we rattled off which vegetables he likes (cucumbers, spinach in salad, corn on the cob, artichokes, sometimes tomatoes, roasted potatoes) and this was a good reminder of how many he actually will eat. I mean, really, how can I complain when he can outeat me in artichokes?
This is a great story to start a vegetable discussion with your kids … we’re already planning our vegetable garden for the spring.
