I have the most beautiful, artistic, DELICIOUS book to share with you today!

Our Food Grows, written by Sarah M. White, illustrated by Tessa Gibbs, and published by the Collective Book Studio, is a pure delight for young kids and their families and educators.

This interesting book focuses on food, how it comes to be, and how it ends up on our plate. With extraordinary collage illustrations (they are SO CUTE!), we learn about strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus (shout out to my dinner last night), peas, and corn...and how they grow and are eaten. 

This gem of a book is absolutely perfect for teaching young readers about the growing process, vibrancy, and deliciousness of fresh produce. It is inspiring and illuminative.

Highly, highly recommended!

Our Food Grows is Sarah’s 7th book! Parents may also enjoy her memoir-in-verse Today I Left the House: Diary of a First-Time Mom. She’s written for Highlight’s High Five magazine. A former Spanish teacher, she’s also written five books for Spanish-language learners with TPRS Books. She lives in Madison, WI with her family.

Tessa Gibbs is a stay-at-home mom with a passion for creating. She paints, illustrates, designs, and more. She loves exploring new mediums to feed her curiosity and hopes to pass that same passion on to her kids in an art-focused home. Tessa is inspired by nature, food, animals, and lots of color. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Tessa now lives in Madison with her husband and two children.

We were lucky enough to talk with both Sarah and Tessa, and ask them about the book, inspiration, the illustration process, and more. Here’s what they had to say…

What inspired you to write this book?
Sarah: Thank you so much for including Our Food Grows! For me, this book was inspired by Tessa’s collage art. She made a gift book for a close friend, and as soon as I saw the apple slices, I was hooked, and I wanted to make a food book. We started talking and dreaming, and here we are five years later. 

Tessa: I’ve always been passionate about illustrating things that grow. I’m drawn to plants, animals, and food. For food in particular, I’m inspired by the colors and textures created by nature, and I try to bring that out in my art. Being a mom to little kids, I’m also interested in educating children about where whole food comes from. It’s an exciting thing to watch your food grow!

How did you decide which grown foods to include?
Sarah: Our Food Grows features strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus, peas, and corn. We wanted to use some foods that were local to Wisconsin. We also tried to choose some foods that were kid favorites and others that might be new to them, like asparagus. 

We considered balancing colors and plant types–each food needed an interesting factoid. Grapes and cranberries were originally included, but as I got into the research, the factoids for these two foods became very complicated, and some of my own misconceptions came to light. I thought cranberries grew in water, but water is only used in the harvesting process. Our editor, Jon Reyes, was helpful in guiding us towards the primer structure, which is true to our original hopes for the book in engaging very young readers. 

Tessa: Sarah and I collaborated on which foods to include, and it was fun to explore all the options. Sarah focused more on the facts, and I made sure we had enough variety when it came to color and texture. I wanted to include strawberries because it’s a fan favorite in my house and I’m sure many other homes. It was hard to narrow it down, but in doing so, it allows kids to grow their curiosity about each one. 

The illustrations are so delicious! Tessa, I'd love to learn more about your collage art and how you created it for the book…
Tessa: Thank you! My first passion is graphic design, and I only recently started leaning into my illustration side. Whenever I create something, it starts with research and sketching. You’ll notice the food isn’t perfectly accurate because I emphasized elements to engage the reader. 

The next steps are a bit more complicated because it’s hard to talk about my art without talking about my design side as well. As a designer, I can choose a pantone swatch and digitally cut elements out and move them around freely on my screen. In my collage art, I do the same thing but with my hands. I paint my colors on big pieces of paper and I use scissors to cut them into shapes that match my sketches. The creative flow is familiar, and I love visualizing things as shapes that come together to make something bigger. After creating the physical product, I scan them in and modify them as needed. I love using my hands and my computer, so this style brings them together so wonderfully! 

How can kids learn more about how food grows (and perhaps do it themselves)?
Sarah: Our educator’s guide has ideas for activities to try at home. It includes a text set with more books to read and some grown-up gardening books as well. Connecting with a local university extension program is also a great way to learn about gardening. Sometimes they host classes or workshops in the community, and their websites are also excellent resources. 

Tessa: Take your children to local farms and farmers markets! Not every family has the opportunity to grow food but visiting local farms and markets is an accessible way to see and connect to your community’s agriculture. 

How can readers find your work?
The Our Food Grows website is www.ourfoodgrows.com. 
Connect with Sarah on Instagram @sarahmichellewhite and on her website sarahmichellewhite.com. 
Connect with Tessa on Instagram @tessagibbscreative and on her website tessagibbs.com.