The Carrot Seed

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Illustrated by Crockett Johnson
1945

     If you have been reading my blog, you know that the books I tend to write about are all fairly recent publications, 10 years old at most.  Today is different.  When I was trying to decide what book to blog about, my eyes kept going back to my little board book edition of The Carrot Seed.  As old as this book is, (first edition dates back to 1945) I only read it for the first time two years ago and it's been a family favorite ever since (I grew up abroad, so some of the books that everybody grew up with in the US, I have never read...and vice versa).
     "A little boy planted a carrot seed."  His mom, dad and brother keep tell him that nothing is going to come up, that the seed won't germinate.  But still, the boy tends to the patch were he planted the seed.  He waters it, weeds it and waits, and waits.  Still nothing comes up and his family insists that nothing will ever come up.  But the boy believes and eventually, a carrot came up "just as the little boy had known it would."  He never gave up, even when nobody else believed.  That's perseverance and dedication right there.  Aside from the story, I love the illustrations by Crocket Johnson (of Harold and the Purple Crayon fame).  The drawings all have a kind of sepia, mustard and rust tone to it, except for the carrot tree which comes up shooting straight to the sky with a bright green, and the gigantic carrot the boy is able to harvest which is a bold orange color.
     I will try to include from now on, those classic books that I get to rediscover.