Two Old Potatoes and Me

Rating:
Summary: A story about making things grow
Review: "Two Old Potatoes and Me" is by John Coy, with pictures by Carolyn Fisher. The story is narrated by a young girl who finds two old potatoes with sprouts growing from them. With advice from her grandpa, she and her dad try to grow new potatoes from the old ones.

The rich, colorful pictures have a surreal flavor and an appealing energetic quality. This is a good story about intergenerational cooperation and bonding, and also about hard work and conservation of resources. And as a bonus the book includes a recipe for mashed potatoes.

Rating:
Summary: A story about making things grow
Review: "Two Old Potatoes and Me" is by John Coy, with pictures by Carolyn Fisher. The story is narrated by a young girl who finds two old potatoes with sprouts growing from them. With advice from her grandpa, she and her dad try to grow new potatoes from the old ones.

The rich, colorful pictures have a surreal flavor and an appealing energetic quality. This is a good story about intergenerational cooperation and bonding, and also about hard work and conservation of resources. And as a bonus the book includes a recipe for mashed potatoes.

Rating:
Summary: The eyes have it
Review: Personally I prefer my mashed potatoes with garlic and maybe even some herbs and parmesan cheese, and always with the skin on. But that doesn't mean John Coy's "Two Old Potatoes and Me'' doesn't hit the mark.

Coy's simple story is about a father and daughter making a bucket of potatoes out of two rotten ones. But, perfectly matched by Carolyn Fisher's dense and joyous illustrations, it's also about many larger things: the miracle of nature (and sustainability), the challenges of time and patience, the complex intimacies of family, and of course the fact that grandfathers know just about everything.

Given the mashed potato recipe and the strategy for dealing with potato bugs, you might want three copies of this book: one for the kids' shelf, one for the cookbook shelf, and one on the gardening table.

Rating:
Summary: LIFE TAKES ON THE ROTTEN POTATO CHALLENGE . . .
Review: There is such satisfaction and delight in John Coy's tale. Daughter and "part-time" dad decide to plant 2 old ("G.R.O.S.S.") potatoes with eyes sprouting like Halloween weirdos. Yet even rotting potatoes help illustrate what Life is all about: work, waiting,wisdom.

During the aftermath of her parents' divorce the girl finds encouragement from nature's growth cycle, the advice of a wise grandpa, a caring father. Her personality is cultivated through lessons from the natural world. Then, following the menace of Potato Bugs, there comes the ultimate reward: that crowning comfort, mashed potatoes!

For a time life's problems take a back seat for the reader, too. We see signs that many parents are working harder than ever to achieve strong relationships with their children, even in today's throwaway society. The story Minnesotan John Coy shares is enhanced by the graphic illustrations of Carolyn Fisher, delightfully crowded on page after page. This book is definitely one to keep . . . we need its optimism.

There are reviews that also rate FIVE STARS: read what Grace Oliff writes for SLJ; also, Bill McAuliffe's "The Eyes Have It."

REVIEWER mcHAIKU claims "ALL LIFE SHOULD HAVE A SPRINKLING OF NUTMEG!"