Month: March 2025

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Paka by Sara Andrea Farjardo

| Tasha

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka Con La Paka by Sara Andrea Fajardo, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal (9781250838612)

Two Peruvian-Americans come together to create a warm and delightful picture book biography of Alberto Salas, a Peruvian scientist who dedicated his life to potatoes. Searching for wild potatoes through the Peruvian landscape is a treat with that landscape depicted by a Caldecott-honoree illustrator. From the hilly land to Salas’ notes to finding the spark of a potato in the mud to the potatoes themselves, readers will be amazed by the colors on the page.

This book tackles climate change, the need for scientists and the manual labor that it sometimes takes for science to happen and to discover something that can feed a changing world. Enjoy this game of hide-and-seek!

Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from e-galley.

Everything is Poison by Joy Mccullough

| Tasha

Just finished Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough. Just the 17th century Italian YA novel that modern readers need right now. Full of strong women taking care of their community plus the beauty of found family and an apothecary. http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746825…

— Tasha Saecker (@tsaecker.bsky.social) 2025-03-28T18:41:29.297Z

Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough

A truly great YA read that is engrossing, filled with fascinating details about apothecary work, and a call for women to fight, survive, and thrive on their own terms. The text is an engaging mix of prose and poetry, offering small glimpses of other people of that time who are living very different yet hauntingly similar lives. Highly recommended.