April’s Book
Written by: Kamal E. Bell with Akeem Bell
Illustrated By: Darnell Johnson
Told from Akeem’s perspective, Akeem Keeps Bees! begins with the arrival and installation of a package of bees and follows Akeem and his Dad throughout the year as they inspect the hive, find the queen, deal with a swarm, harvest honey, and prepare for winter. Every part of the process is illustrated for young readers, teaching them the special role that bees play on a farm. The author, Kamal Bell, is a leading voice among Black farmers educating and inspiring Black youth about farming and beekeeping, and is from North Carolina! Young readers will learn the basics of beekeeping with this vibrantly illustrated book that takes place on the Sankofa Farms apiary.
April’s Chapter Book
Written by: Gary D. Schmidt
This warm and witty novel explores characters around a coastal plant nursery. Herc Beal knows who he’s named after—a mythical hero—but he’s no superhero. He’s the smallest kid in his class. So when his homeroom teacher at his new middle school gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercules’s amazing feats in real life, he’s skeptical. Missing his parents terribly and wishing his older brother wasn’t working all the time, Herc figures out how to take his first steps along the road that the great Hercules himself once walked. Soon, new friends, human and animal, are helping him. And though his mythical role model performed his twelve labors by himself, Herc begins to see that he may not have to go it alone.
March’s Book
Written by: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrated By: Christy Hale
Farmer Eva Sommaripa founded Eva’s Garden in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a place “so close to the ocean, she can smell the sea, so close to woods she can talk to trees.” More than 50 years later she has grown a big green garden life of friends and neighbors, creatures that crawl, fly and slither, eve microbes that create rich soil in the brown underground. Meet farmer Eva, and share the magic, beauty, and science of life on the farm and caring for the land.
North Carolina Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom is an educational program that is dedicated to fostering an understanding of the importance of agriculture in North Carolina. The program strives to achieve this mission in recommending books for use as additional resources to PreK – 12th grade educators. Each month we offer a book for anyone looking for a valid ag-related resource to utilize in the classroom. Each book will have accompanying activities of high-quality that can be integrated into lesson plans at various grade levels. The total purchase of one book is $5.00 and can be purchased until copies are sold out.
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