School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-A teacher in a Honduran village demonstrates ways to grow more vegetables in a school garden. As villagers improve their crops, they gain confidence to go to market instead of selling to middlemen, shaggy-headed "coyotes," in the richly colored illustrations. An afterword introduces the teacher whose work inspired the story. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Part of the CitizenKid line of books, this inspiring story uses the example of a Honduran family to explain the global plight of farmers who aren't able to feed and support themselves despite their labors. With their land past its prime and at the mercy of a predatory grain buyer (portrayed as a well-dressed coyote), Maria Luz Duarte and her parents fear they will lose their farm. A new teacher, however, explains how composting and terrace farming can help, eventually allowing the family to circumvent the middleman and thrive. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In Honduras, when Marma Luz's father goes in search of work, he leaves her in charge of the floundering family farm. A new teacher gets Marma Luz to try some techniques that revive the garden, which in turn inspires other villagers. The well-meaning text is wordy. Each spread contains a full-page colored-pencil illustration, sometimes with surreal elements. Glos. Copyright 2010 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
One Hen (illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes, 2008) honors the work of Honduran farmer-trainer Elas Sanchez. Full-bleed illustrations, curving lines done with colored pencil on colored paper, extend across the gutters to show Mara Luz, her family and neighbors at work, the threatening coyote who wants to sell their produce and take his cut and the busy market where they sell cash crops and buy seed on their own. The sun waves long arms and beams at the improvement in their lives. Though the text is not simple, the appealing design will support less able readers. Endnotes add information about food security around the world and include a glossary of Spanish words. (Picture book. 7-10) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In rural Honduras, Maria Luz Duarte and her family are campesinos, farmers who eke out a subsistence from small, depleted land plots. Forced to leave the family to earn additional wages, Papa puts Maria in charge of the family garden. From her new teacher, Maria learns exciting, sustainable techniques about terracing plots, composting, and growing complementary plants, as well as selling crops directly at the market, rather than dealing with the coyote, a predatory broker who has repossessed many of the Duartes' neighbors' land. Each spread in this illuminating book begins with a title that divides the lengthy text into chapterlike sections that could be easily read aloud in installments. Daigneault's vibrant colored-pencil illustrations incorporate Latin American culture with both the details of daily life and swirls of magical realism; the nefarious coyote, for example, sports an actual coyote's head atop his human body. More about food security and sustainable farming closes this moving, informative entry in the publisher's CitizenKid line that will partner nicely with Jan Reynolds' Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life (2009).--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
