Tops and Bottoms
By Janet Stevens
Harcourt Brace
This humorous picture book is about a lazy Bear who has “lots of money and lots of land” and a clever neighbor Hare known to be reckless and risky. When Hare finds himself without any money or land, he decides to take advantage of his lazy neighbor, offering to plant all the crops on Bear’s land and split the harvest. Hare cleverly offers Bear “tops or bottoms” each time something is planted; however, whatever Bear chooses always ends up being the scraps of the plant—carrot greens and lettuce roots, to name a few. Children will not only enjoy the humor but will gain an understanding of different types of crops and whether they grow above or below the ground. This book is also unique in that the layout is vertical instead of the typical landscape format, so each page is full of detail. Find out how these two very different neighbors learn to live in harmony and the lessons each learns from their dealings with one another.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Spring 2024
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