Moments Grown With Love: Macie and the Magic Veggies Book Review

Macie and the Magic Veggies, by Peter Contardo

When friend and brilliant storyteller Peter Contardo told me about his new children’s book, I had to read it and share about it.

The storyline is fairly straightforward: Young (5-year-old) Macie loves shopping with her mom, especially when she gets to pick out vegetable treats, but her grandfather decides to expand Macie’s love of veggies by taking her to a nearby farm to see how (and where) they grow.

Meeting the farmer and seeing how she grows the foods in her garden, Macie is then inspired to start a garden and grow some of her own foods, sharing them with her grandfather.

The big secret of the book and our delightful farmer’s secret is that all the best food is grown with love!

Besides the wonderfully inspiring story, the book also includes a great selection of questions to get children even more engaged in the content. It also includes ideas for fun gardening/farming activities, such as going to a farmers market.

I love the simplicity of the story and the beautiful artwork, and I think this is a fantastic book for introducing children to the ideas of vegetables and farming.

This book is especially important since we are in a time when fewer people are eating real foods, especially vegetables, and those that do are often buying them at the grocery store rather than from local farmers.

The message is clear: We all should be growing some of our own food and we need to be supporting our local farmers who are truly growing healthy food for us. And this message is wrapped up in the importance of love and community.

What will be Macie’s next adventure? Only Peter knows, but I hope there will be many.