KIWI Bookworms Buddy Review:
One of my favorite books is Project Mulberry. The part I liked the best was when the main character goes on a field trip to a farm where she learns about a ³sustainable² farm. In that kind of farm the cows eat the grass in one field then move to the next. Then chickens move into the first field and eat the bugs that live on the cow waste. They also scratch the waste around and without meaning to fertilize the soil. Then you move the chickens out and the sheep in. The sheep only eat weeds and leave all of the nice healthy grass for the cows. Then the cycle starts all over again! Is that not amazing? All the fields are being used but are still fresh at the same time!
Project Mulberry
Clarion Books, 2005
Ages 9 and up
Julia Song and her friend Patrick would love to win a blue ribbon, maybe even two, at the state fair.
They’ve always done projects together, and they work well as a team. This time, though, they’re having trouble coming up with just the right plan. Then Julia’s mother offers a suggestion: They can raise silkworms, as she did when she was a girl in Korea. Patrick thinks it’s a great idea. Of course there are obstacles—for example, where will they get mulberry leaves, the only thing silkworms eat?—but nothing they can’t handle.
Julia isn’t so sure. The club where kids do their projects is all about traditional American stuff, and raising silkworms just doesn’t fit in. Moreover, the author, Ms. Park, seems determined to make Julia’s life as complicated as possible, no matter how hard Julia tries to talk her out of it.
