Squash Boom Beet: An Alphabet for Healthy, Adventurous Eaters is a children's educational book written and illustrated by Lisa Maxbauer Price. Most kids, and adults for that matter, only see vegetables as those somewhat bland or boring things that sit, and are usually ignored, on a dinner plate, but they can be so much more than that. Price takes children on a outdoor nature adventure to see vegetables in their own environment -- and not just peas and carrots. Squash Boom Beat resonates with the rhythms and cadence of a march as the author introduces each letter of the alphabet with one or more types of farm-fresh vegetables. Most of them are exotic, with bright, flashy colors and strange shapes -- the stems on one root vegetable look like a catfish's feelers and the carrots the author does include in her lexicon come in a variety of vivid colors. Price pairs each letter of the alphabet with at least one bright and bold photograph. At the end of the book, she includes a listing of the farms, farmers' markets and community gardens where she took her photographs and found her very intriguing subjects.

Price's photographs look good enough to eat in her children's educational book entitled Squash Boom Beet: An Alphabet for Healthy, Adventurous Eaters. The book features the best of produce caught at the peak of perfection and complete with zany colors, peculiar shapes and descriptions of the tastes each vegetable is known for. While I had to seriously question whether I'd want to chew on a flowering chive stem as a snack, I was impressed by both the presentation and the nutritious promise implicit in this book. While some kids are inevitably going to turn up their noses at beets, no matter how attractively they're presented, there's a lot in this book to turn kids on and tempt them into trying new vegetables and getting involved in the process of growing, harvesting, and finding them. Squash Boom Beet: An Alphabet for Healthy, Adventurous Eaters brings healthy eating for children to a whole new level. It's most highly recommended.

Squash Boom Beet by Lisa Maxbauer Price is a book all about vegetables. Don't turn away now! It is a rather exciting book about vegetables, especially if you know little about the huge variety of exciting veggies out there. This book provides you and your kids with many colorful pages that make the veggies jump out at you with their interesting stories. You can either read the book to your kids, especially if you struggle with kids who don't like veggies much, or give it to them to read on their own. It is an easy, yet interesting read about veggies that even adults might not yet have heard about.

While I have no children, apart from my chickens, I did enjoy Squash Boom Beet by Lisa Maxbauer Price from the perspective of someone who works on an organic vegetable farm. I love books that encourage people to learn more about the great variety out there. Many people (not just kids - adults are even worse) just know peas, one or two types of beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and the usual greens that you have on your plate. Most people wouldn't have an idea about rainbow chard or curly kale. So it is very nice to see such a beautifully designed book that shows how colorful and interesting vegetables can be. While this book is aimed at kids, some adults would do well to have a look at it, too. This book proves that veggies are fun and, in the end, they are also a lot healthier for you than meat and greasy foods!