5 A Day Books: Fruit & Vegetables

Our vegetable patch is growing thick & fast at the moment, & Minnie is excitedly sampling peas, strawberries, salad, carrots, & beans. Many more veggies are growing & she's keenly monitoring their progress! So with this in mind our books this week have taken a homegrown theme...

Oh No, Monster Tomato!

'Oh no, Monster Tomato!' by Jim Helmore & Karen Wall, is a tale about a little boy called Marvin, whose brother & sister tease him about his height. They enter a tomato growing competition & tell Marvin his tomato will be tiny too! With a little bit of magic & a special song Marvin's tomato grows, & grows, it even grows off the page! A fun book, & useful book for exploring sibling rivalry too!

I Really Wonder What Plant I'm Growing

'I Really Wonder What Plant I'm Growing by Lauren Child. We love Charlie & Lola (remember our magnets?) & Lauren Child's stories are a joy to read. This book is great for exploring life cycles, care of plants, & just how patient you have to be when growing them. It's packed full of imagination & fun. Minnie loves growing plants & is keen to plant any seeds she finds, however we don't always know which seeds she has planted, so this book is perfect for us. ;-)


This lift-the-flap version of 'Jack & The Beanstalk' by Nick Sharratt has a great fun, rhyming text, & bold, colourful illustrations. Our beans are growing up pretty high now, who knows, if they keep growing then maybe, just maybe...


'Oliver's Vegetables' by Vivian French is a wonderful tale about a boy who only eats chips! That is until he plays a game with his Grandpa, & whatever vegetable Oliver finds in the garden he must eat. Oliver finds carrots on Monday, spinach on Tuesday, rhubarb on Wednesday, etc. Great for introducing planting, different vegetables, & days of the week. Could be useful for fussy eaters too.


This version of the classic fairytale 'The Enormous Turnip' has a great rhyming text, & fun illustrations. The repetition in the text, as everyone joins the farmer to pull the turnip, is perfect for encouraging participation. Here's hoping our turnips don't get quite as large as this!

Looking forward to reading our healthy 5-a-day, & sampling some homegrown goodies too!