Young students get a cornucopia of farming facts

Kids wear their wool coat, carve the Halloween pumpkin, smell the flowers, pass the bacon and eggs and pour the syrup.  But do they know where wool, pumpkins, flowers, bacon, eggs and maple syrup come from? Or how these products get to their house?  Kids will learn all this and much, much more by reading Rourke Publishing's innovative new interdisciplinary Discovery Library series, Harvest to Home.

Written for students in grades 1-4, Harvest to Home presents a treasure-trove of captivating facts about popular farmed and harvested foods, plants, and animals products. Educators will love how every series title enhances lessons across the elementary curriculum, from science and history to social studies and nutrition.

Boasting vivid full-color photographs and an easy-to-read text, this lively series clearly explains how pigs, chickens, flowers and pumpkins are raised, how sugar makers draw maple syrup from a tree, and how farmers shear wool off sheep. Young readers also discover the healthy nutrients found in pork and eggs and the many ways pumpkins, flowers and wool are used throughout the world.

Here's a glance at some of the compelling facts found in Harvest to Home's six informative titles:

•  Eggs – Farmers in the United States own about 275 million chickens.  These birds, called layers, produce about 7 billion eggs each  year.

•  Flowers – 250,000 kinds of plants have flowers. Favorite North American flowers are roses, tulips, daffodils, orchids, lilies, and impatiens.

•  Maple Syrup – Vermont is the leading maple syrup maker in the United States.  New York is second, followed by Wisconsin and New Hampshire.

•  Pork – Pigs grow quickly. By the age of six months, they weigh about 250 pounds.  Most pigs this big are sent to market.

•  Pumpkins – While most pumpkins weigh between 15 and 30 pounds, the Atlantic giant pumpkin can grow to more than 1,000 pounds!   

•  Wool – The first domestic sheep to reach North America were brought from Spain in the early 1500's.

Teachers and librarians will find the bolded topic-specific glossary terms and glossary with phonetic pronunciations very helpful for reinforcing reading and vocabulary skills. A detailed index and lists of books and websites ideal for further study are also included, making every title a great resource for research assignments.

Lynn Stone is a former teacher who has written over 400 children's books. He currently travels the world photographing wildlife in their natural habitat.