Zora's Zucchini

by Katherine Pryor, Anna Raff (Illustrations)

The first zucchini of a summer garden is always exciting, but what happens when the plants just keep growing...and growing...and growing? Zora soon finds herself with more zucchini than her family can bake, sauté, or barbecue. Fortunately the ever-resourceful girl comes up with the perfect plan—a garden swap!

Author Katherine Pryor and artist Anna Raff followup with their first book, Sylvia's Spinach , with this playful story of a child who discovers not only the wonder of growing food but the satisfaction of growing a community.

Shelf Awareness , says "Zora's Zucchini satisfies every appetite with its clean, happy storyline and whimsical illustrations." and Tom Watson, EcoConsumer , writes "We’ll never make headway with the pressing environmental issues of our time – such as climate change, community-building and food waste – without brilliant, fun little books like Zora’s Zucchini ." A Whole Kids Foundation Book Club selection for April 2016.

Genres: Picture Books, Food, Childrens, Summer, Nature, Fiction, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 2015

About the author

Katherine Pryor is an award-winning children’s book author and good food advocate. She grew up in California and Arizona before moving to Seattle to study food and farming. Her books are widely used in school garden curriculum, nutrition education, and anti-hunger initiatives. In addition to writing, Katherine has worked to create better food choices at institutions, large corporations & food banks.

She made her picture book debut with Sylvia’s Spinach, which is widely used to support nutrition education and school garden curriculum. Her second picture book, Zora's Zucchini​, won the 2016 Growing Good Kids Book Award. Her third picture book, Bea's Bees, was called "a necessary addition to elementary library shelves as an important contribution to the understanding and conservation of bees" by School Library Journal.

Home is Calling: The Journey of the Monarch Butterfly won the SCBWI Charlotte & Wilbur Award for Compassion for Animals, was named a 2024 Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts by NCTE, and was featured on the Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List.

Kirkus Reviews called Spring is for Strawberries “A delightful blend of friendship, fresh food, melodious language, and luscious illustrations.”

Her first board book, Hello, Garden!, won the 2022 Gold Medal, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, and the book was extended into a four-book series including Hello, Rain!, Hello, Beach!, and Hello, Snow!, which won a 2025 Mom's Choice Gold Award.

She lives in Sonoma County, California.

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not entirely convinced that a kid who'd never seen the word "zucchini" before would know automatically to pronounce it "zoo-kee-nee" but still, a sweet little book about vegetable gardening.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my full review here: https://www.yabookscentral.com/kidsfi...

ZORA'S ZUCCHINI is a delightful picture book that explores growing vegetables and sharing with neighbors. Zora is a little bored during her summer vacation, so she rides her bike around the neighborhood. When she passes the hardware store, she notices that they have zucchini plants for free. She takes them home and plants them, and soon, her plants have flowers- and then zucchinis! She makes all sorts of fun zucchini dishes with her family, but the zucchinis keep growing.

Soon, Zora has another great idea- she trades some zucchinis with her neighbor who is growing tomatoes, and then sets up a veggie swap for all the people in her neighborhood. Zora's venture brings them all together and provides great diversity of homegrown vegetables and fruits. The book ends by addressing food waste with what you can do if your garden grows too much!

What I loved: The story is really fun and easy to follow for young readers. They will appreciate the fun of the growing garden and the sharing of the zucchinis. It is always great to see healthy foods featured in a positive way in children's books, and I loved the focus and joy around vegetables and fruits. The length makes this book great for a variety of readers from toddlers through elementary schoolers, and the illustrations are cute and full of delightful details.

Final verdict: With a focus on veggies and the fun of growing your own, ZORA'S ZUCCHINI features friends, good food, and summer joy. This delightful read is great for picture book readers of all ages.

Please note that I received a review copy. All opinions are my own.

[Alyssa Gudenburr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cute book about a girl who grows SO much zucchini she does a garden swap with her neighbors.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun story of a girl bored in summer vacation who, by chance, grows zucchini from seeds and finds a delightful solution for the unexpected abundance of her crop! There is a joyous tone to the book, not a telling as much as a romp through the fun of learning how vegetables grow and what to do with the unexpected crop. I like the light tone, the sense of movement that the language gives and can imagine this read out loud. Recommended!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I brought ZORA'S ZUCCHINI home in a stack gardening books for my plant-obsessed 4-year-old, and it was my his clear favorite. He asked my husband and me to read it to him several times per day for two weeks. (Thankfully the story was lovely, and we didn't mind the repetition.) My son's only complaint was that the story was over too quickly. He actually said, "When I grow up, I'm going to make ZORA'S ZUCCHINI longer!"

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a funny gardening book, great for kids who like gardening. I also found the zucchini for breakfast, lunch and dinner to be very funny. The kids enjoyed this one.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book answering the gardener's age old question: what to do with all that zucchini?!?

Seriously, the book does answer that question, but also celebrates the joy of gardening and the community-building potential of gardens and gardening. I appreciated too that Zora's family was supportive of her efforts. I also appreciated the diversity of the characters, including Zora's family who might be from Central/South America, or maybe the Mediterranean, or the Mid-East, or... ?

The illustrations are cute and perfectly compliment this sweet story.

p.s. I admit, I did keep missing the U in neighbourhood and neighbours; it was quite jarring, especially that these words appear so frequently in the book - not part of the rating but still irritating.

Note: I gave this book a full review because this book was published by Readers to Eaters.

I used to give full reviews for all of the books that I rated on GR. However, GR's new giveaway policies (Good Reads 2017 November Giveaways Policies Changes) have caused me to change my reviewing decisions. These new GR policies seem to harm smaller publishing efforts in favour of providing advantage to the larger companies, (GR Authors' Feedback) the big five publishers (Big Five Publishers). So, because of these new GR policies from now on I will be supporting smaller publishing efforts by only giving full reviews to books published by: publishing businesses outside the big five companies, indie publishers, and self-published authors. This book was published by one of these smaller publishing efforts so I have given it a full review.

[Wendy]

“Zora’s Zucchini” a whimsical and delightfully humorous story which I won through Goodreads Giveaways opens with Zora’s gardening adventure, planting zucchinis that grow in abundance. After her family cooks her harvest in every way imaginable Zora discovers that she still has loads of zucchini’s in her garden so has to come up with an ingenious and resourceful plan to share her bounty.

With about one-third of the world’s food wasted and climate changes that often cripple the production of various vegetables, this is a wonderful way to encourage children to learn to garden but to find novel ways to share any overabundance with others. Beautifully illustrated this book stimulates the inventive, practical and cleverness in children as well as encouraging family and community relationships as Zora explores ways to share her harvest.

I loved “Zora’s Zucchini” and will not only encourage children at my library to read it but intend to add “Sylvua’s Spinach” to our collection.

[Nadia L. Hohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it was illustrated by Anna Raff. I recently took an illustration with Anna Raff and they were delightful and fun. I like Raff’s style of digital painting. She also has a super cool story of how she came to illustrate. This book is written in the past tense which is something I’m not used too in picture books. I like the essential message of the story as my parents are both gardeners and I grew up eating many a fruit and vegetable from our yard over the years. I grew up seeing my dad give away the yields when there was too much to eat. We never got into preserving though which is probably because there was no winter or refrigeration in Jamaica, where my parents are from and at that time when the homes they lived in while there. (My parents were from the more rural areas and pre-1975. Of course there are refrigerators in Jamaica.). Anyway, nice book and takeaway message for kids. Good introduction to gardening.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up on a farm. This book hands down is a great book tying in community and growing vegetables (or fruits) I truly feel inspired next summer to do a community vegetable swap and I love all the suggestions in the back! Great read for children to encourage eating vegetables, growing vegetables, and community involvement!

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zora gets some free zucchini plants from the store and brings them home to plant. She learns a valuable lesson on figuring out what to do with excess produce. I love that she sets up a produce swap location so all gardeners in her neighborhood can share with each other.
Colorful illustrations bring out the beauty of gardens.

[Angela De Groot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bored with the usual summer activities, Zora decides to plant a zucchini garden. Her family enjoy the fruits of her labor, but when she harvests tons more zucchini than her family can possibly consume, Zora comes up with a nifty plan that will have the whole neighborhood benefiting from her garden haul.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great story--I loved how Zora grew so much zucchini that she invited all her neighbors to a produce swap. It's such a great idea. I would have given the book 4 stars, but I felt the illustrations were a little lackluster.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. It is such a nice story about gardening and about community. There is some humor here (especially for gardeners who know just how productive zucchini can be) but mostly it is just a really nice story.

This book came with a CD, but I did not listen to it.

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zora plants zucchini and it grows and grows. She shares zucchini with her neighbors, her family makes new recipes with zucchini and then she hosts a vegetable swap. This is a cute, fun read! 5 stars!

[Veronica Kapinos · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What would you do if you had too much food?” “I would give it to someone else.”

That’s the correct answer.

[Dedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great book to share with young gardeners. I liked how the family learned different ways to eat zucchini and how Zora figured out ways to deal with all of the extra zucchini!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book, but maybe I pick out books that are more concept than the Ozman is ready for. Zora starts a community farm share just by sheer willpower. I loved it, but Oz didn't quite care yet.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for this book that embraces gardening and community garden outreach with children

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Resourceful Zora finds ways to share all the zucchini she grows.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 green zucchini stars. Anyone who has grown zucchini will sympathize with Zora. Donate, preserve, share your excess produce.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple peek into the world of gardening and what to do if you have too many vegetables.

[Latrice Pearl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about what to do when you have too much of something.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zora gets some free zucchini plants, starts a garden, and starts a produce swap with her neighbors.

[Claire Johnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zora finds zucchini plants and grows her own during her summer break. She grows so much zucchini, that she starts a vegetable swap in her neighborhood.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

We really enjoyed this children’s book about gardening during summer vacation, problem solving, and sharing the bounty.

[Mellanie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute story about a little girl's prolific garden and how she uses her abundance of produce to make a difference in her community. Highly recommended.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The first zucchini of a summer garden is always exciting, but what happens when the plants just keep growing...and growing...and growing? Zora soon finds herself with more zucchini than her family can bake, sauté, or barbecue. Fortunately the ever-resourceful girl comes up with a perfect plan--a garden swap!"--Page [4] of cover.
Local author

[Donna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well illustrated book for children. It shows a little girl who develops a love for gardening, problem solves when she has too many zucchinis and gets the neighbors to trade and share. I love gardening, so I loved the premise and the lessons about sharing and community were very nice and not too heavy handed for a child. I was given this book in exchange for a review.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea and it would make a good gardening storytime book but I think the last page could've been skipped. The kids can figure out on their own that her garden swap brought the neighbors together, it doesn't need to be stated.