How Carrots Won the Trojan War
Once upon a time I meet an author. Not an unusual event in a bookstore, but this author stuck in my mind because she was fun and giggly and very much a kindred spirit! Her name is Rebecca Rupp. Her middle-reader novel, The Dragon of Lonely Island is still one of my favorite books. But a new book of hers, How Carrots Won the Trojan War (while like her other non-fiction works) is not my usual reading. First it is non-fiction. And while I've read some non-fiction (even willingly and not mandatory for a class assignment) it is not first on my list of readings.
But when I heard that carrots helped win the Trojan War, I had to take a chance on a friend. And it was a chance worth taking! Rupp has taken vegetables to a new level. She has traced the funny, serious and unusual facts and stories of 20 different vegetables: such as asparagus (a least favorite veggie of mine due to an unfortunate dinner preparation for a couple of children I was babysitting) and how it seduced a French King. Such as corn with its connection to a famous Transylvanian. Such as Pumpkins (a favorite pie of mine and a food for a family legend) and of course turnips (that vegetable that ties in with pumpkins and has a history that would give me a starring role in a Junior-High Play—which to this day I've still not gotten my academy award for!) (READ MORE)