by Kyle Lukoff
First published 2024
Chester heads to the community garden with lunch plans. He wants to make a salad, so he needs vegetables. Simple enough. But the plants have other ideas. They start talking back, and they're not happy about being called vegetables. The kale insists it's just a leaf. The broccoli declares itself a flower. The potatoes argue they're roots, and the celery stands firm as stalks. Chester finds himself in the middle of a botanical debate he never saw coming. These sassy plants refuse to accept the vegetable label and teach Chester that the categories we use don't always match reality. What seemed like a straightforward trip for salad fixings turns into a lesson about how we organize the world around us. Chester learns that sometimes the things we take for granted need a closer look.
Genres: fiction, humor, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: anthropomorphism, found-family
Setting: Community Garden
40 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)