Going Offbeet

<p><strong>First-grade gardener Gertie Green finds herself the object of an admiring classmate's unwanted attention in this beautifully illustrated early chapter book about friendship compassion and the power of perspective.</strong></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Zoey copies Gertie's smiley faces. She copies her numbers. She even sits next to Gertie at lunch and tries to copy her best friend. Then Zoey goes too far. She copies the thing that Gertie likes best about herself the thing that makes her different from everybody else in class. How do you get a copycat to stop when everything you try just makes your problems bigger?</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>While Gertie is pushed to the limit at school her big sister Liza is in a funk and is taking it out on Gertie at home. But when Liza's middle school moping</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>meets Gertie's fascination with a new colorful vegetable Gertie gets a great idea for something that she knows Zoey will never copy. When carrying out her plan results in a </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>second</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> copycat Gertie discovers that sometimes the solution to a problem simply lies in how you look at it.</span></p><p>This is the second book in this beautifully illustrated early reader chapter book series about friendship gardening and the power and importance of being yourself.<span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> Each book features a different vegetable as a key part of the story and includes how-to-grow information for young gardeners.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(87 87 87 1); background-color: rgba(252 252 252 1)>Visit the </span>Free Digital Downloads<span style=color: rgba(87 87 87 1); background-color: rgba(252 252 252 1)> tab of the publisher's website (shelfspacebooks.com) for an extensive selection of companion resources to go along with the Gertie in the Garden books like food and gardening activities and coloring books. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Gertie in the Garden series is so engaging . . . growing vegetables and even playing with them will encourage kids to view healthy foods as helping them negotiate their way in the world. Kids will love these books (and parents will too). ~ </span><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Marion Nestle</strong><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> Professor of Nutrition Food Studies and Public Health Emerita New York University</span></p>