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Booklist, Starred Review
The creators of The Cats in Krasinski Square (2004), about children who resisted Nazi occupation in Warsaw, move to a very different setting in this title that also features young people on a secret mission. Here, though, the children are a trio of siblings who yearn for a hearty meal and relief for their overworked mother. Watson’s quiet, earth-toned images, rendered in pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache, set the story in the past (Ma uses a wood-burning cookstove) and in a poor, rural setting, where the kids hatch a plan to steal potatoes from a farmer’s field after his harvest. In folksy free verse, Jack, the middle child, describes the nighttime adventure, which ends with the children’s discovery that they’ve filled their sacks mostly with stones, not spuds. Even more heartbreaking is Ma’s anger, and she sends the children and their pilfered loot back to the farmer, who lets them keep what potatoes they found. The subtlety in Hesse’s spare, regional poetry is beautifully extended in Watson’s uncluttered pictures, which convey the thrilling, frosty, moonlit adventure and then the glowing warmth of the family’s shared meal at the end. Children will easily recognize all of the feelings here: the kids’ desire to help, the anxiety about right and wrong, and then the joy when all is forgiven.
Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review
Not since Five Little Peppers or, perhaps, The Waltons has poverty been quite so romantic as Hesse and Watson (previously paired with Hesse for The Cats in Krasinski Square) make it seem in this nostalgic book, narrated by the middle of three fatherless children. As their ma leaves to work the night shift, the three sneak out to glean potatoes left on a neighbor’s field after the harvester has been through it. Hesse leans on readers to appreciate her use of language: “some high-beam car came flying ’round the bend” and the children dive down, “three tater-snatchers, flat-bellied in the dirt, till the tire buzz faded. Then, rising up in the moonlight, we commenced to cockadoodlin’, revelin’ in the pure pleasure of a close call.” Watson’s art roots this story pleasingly: inside their house, her characters look neat and flattened, the humble cousins of Kate Greenaway; the palette and props say Great Depression or earlier. The children’s illicit harvest carries with it a moral, of course, and the narrator eventually realizes that their mother’s love is so big that it “could turn even three little spuds like us into something mighty fine.” Together, the story and pictures create an appetite, then satisfy it.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Recommended
"Our ma, she's mighty fine, but lately it seems like she got nothing' left over, not even for us kids." That's why Jack, our narrator, and his siblings - older sister Maybelle, younger brother Eddie-hatch a plan: to sneak out at night, while their mother's at work, and gather the potatoes lying around in their neighbor's field for a delicious fry-up to supplement their meager Depression-era victuals. Their daring raid in the dark nets them quite a haul-a haul that, upon their return home, proves to be largely potato-shaped rocks, and earns them a reprimand from their mother; fortunately, the kindly neighbor not only forgives them but encourages them to return. While there's more sentiment than logic in the text (if their catch is so meager, where's Ma getting the material for the climactic "biggest fry-up you ever did see"?) the storytelling is smooth and personable, with the sheer thrill of a daring kids-only nocturnal outing well conveyed; there's also a seasoning of believable family dynamics ("Just 'cause I'm in the middle I gotta do whatever Maybelle says") for additional immediacy. Watson's trim lines and neatly bordered scenes have an orderly period flavor, but there are enough saggy socks, patches, and worn holes in the kids' clothes to make the family strictures believable, while the muted palette, heavy on potato-ey earth tones and gray complements, manages to suggest the drabness of privation while retaining sufficient warmth and contrast for interest. Between the nighttime adventure and the food-focused conclusion, this has enough appeal to bring a distant era within understanding, or you can use it with Shulevitz' How I Learned Geography for an exploration of the surprising availability of joy in dark times.
Kirkus Review
Ma is working late shifts but there doesn’t ever seem to be enough to eat. So one frosty night Jack and Maybelle put little Eddie in a wagon with some empty sacks and sneak into a farmer’s field to liberate the potatoes that are just lying there. As they load their prizes, they dream of all the mouthwatering ways Ma might cook the potatoes. Imagine their shock and disappointment when they realize that their sacks held very few potatoes and a load of stones. Ma makes them take everything back to the farmer, who kindly allows them to keep it all, saying they had helped by removing the stones. Thus they get their “fry-up” after all, but they also get some valuable lessons in integrity and compassion. Hesse uses country dialect to set the mood of tender nostalgia. The Depression-era setting is never specifically mentioned, but is conveyed entirely through the details in Watson’s mixed-media illustrations, rendered in soft, muted earth tones that perfectly complement the text. A sweet, gentle tale.
School Library Journal, Premiere Selection, Fall 2008
As this heartwarming picture book opens, Ma's headed out to work the night shift and narrator Jack notes, "lately it seems like she's got nothin' left over, not even for us kids." His older sister, Maybelle, has watched the harvest in their neighbor Mr. Kenney's fields, and, that night, she leads Jack and their younger brother, Eddie, to glean the potatoes left behind. The siblings bundle up in layers of clothing, tuck Eddie into their red wagon, and head out into the cold autumn night. Spurred on by thoughts of a tater feast, they toil in the moonlight and trudge home only to find that they've harvested mostly stones. An angry Ma forces them to confess to Mr. Kenney the next day, but he laughs aside their apology, noting that they've done him a favor by removing the stones from his fields. The children go home and tell Ma, she cooks a fry-up with a sweet smile, and Jack realizes that her love is big enough to "turn even three little spuds like us into something mighty fine." This beautifully crafted picture book features panoramic landscapes and intimate pictures. Watson's pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache illustrations, warmly rendered in earth tones, capture the small figures trudging along under a huge full moon, and detail the care the older children lavish on their younger brother. This sweetly understated affirmation of hard work and honesty, neighborliness and family love, will resonate with a wide audience.