Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Things I Loved About When Green Becomes Tomatoes

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Julie Morstad is a beautifully written book of poems that takes readers from March 20 all the way through the year to land back in March at the end of the book. The poetry is beautifully descriptive, the illustrations are diverse and inclusive and I just absolutely love this little book!

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Ten Things I Loved About When Green Becomes Tomatoes

1. Short
   At only 56 pages and with brief poems, this is a great introduction to poetry for families.
2. Accessible
   With poems about the seasons, kids can really appreciate the poetry because it’s accessible to them without containing a metaphorical description.
3. Seasonal
   This collection of poetry works all year around and you can even pull it out on the specific days each poem is titled.
4. Beautiful illustrations
   Beyond the beautiful imagery of the words written by Julie Fogliano, the illustrations are absolutely beautifully done by Julie Morstad.
5. Bridge across ages
   Poetry is also a great equalizer in that these poems can span across siblings and parents, grandparents, and teachers can also appreciate the words as well.
6. Introduction to poetry.
   This makes a great introduction to poetry, especially for kids who have that mindset that all poetry must rhyme or all poetry is difficult to understand and boring, this short book of truly accessible poems is a great starting point.
7. Can be used for poetry programming/lesson plan
   For teachers, this book could make a wonderful jumping off point for poetry lesson plans, or for librarians – poetry programming, especially during April, National Poetry Month.
8. Pointing out the little moments in the world.
   Poetry is a wonderful tool for teaching kids to see and appreciate the little moments in the world.
9. Encourage creativity.
   Poetry is also a wonderful tool to encourage creativity by using descriptive words to write about something found in everyday life.
10. STEM inclusive
    I will continue to tout the importance of using nonfiction books for kids and this introduction to the seasons is a great way to include STEM with creativity and writing all at the same time.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.