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Sweet Potato Pie
During a drought in the early 1900s, a large loving African American family finds a delicious way to earn the money they need to save their family farm.
32 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
82 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen D. Lindsey
3 books15 followersKathleen D. Lindsey or “Miss Kat,” as she prefers to be called is an author, historian, and storyteller from Clayton NJ. Her first book "Sweet Potato Pie", a notable children’s picture book published in 2003 is still being sold worldwide. "Miss Mattie's Aprons" and "Run, Faredy, Run” both published in 2014 are stories centered around 2 young girls life experiences in different eras. Miss Kat also gives historical performances for TV Documentaries, colleges, schools, Pre-K through 12th grade, churches and various historical and quilting societies. For more information visit her website at www.katlindsey.com
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 25, 2015
Personal Reaction: I liked this book and the message behind the story, that if you try your best and work together you can accomplish anything.
I would read this book aloud to k-3 students. I think that it has a message that is applicable to all age levels, the importance of family and perseverance as well as working your hardest. I would use this in a lesson about families and I would ask prior to reading about special traditions or things that each family does and how the students feel about that. This book is also one that can be used for enjoyment. I would touch on possibly new vocabulary words for the students such as "drought", "sorting" and "hustle" to see if they know the meaning of them. I would maybe follow up this book with an activity about each of the students family that allowed them to draw a picture or write a short story (depending on the specific grade) of a tradition or special thing that they do within their families.
I would read this book aloud to k-3 students. I think that it has a message that is applicable to all age levels, the importance of family and perseverance as well as working your hardest. I would use this in a lesson about families and I would ask prior to reading about special traditions or things that each family does and how the students feel about that. This book is also one that can be used for enjoyment. I would touch on possibly new vocabulary words for the students such as "drought", "sorting" and "hustle" to see if they know the meaning of them. I would maybe follow up this book with an activity about each of the students family that allowed them to draw a picture or write a short story (depending on the specific grade) of a tradition or special thing that they do within their families.
March 2, 2010
Set in the 1920's in the rural south, an African-American family is faced with financial difficulty when a summer drought has ruined all of their crops except for the sweet potatoes. Mama comes up with the idea to sell her sweet potato pies at the Harvest Celebration to raise enough money to pay the bank loan. Mama, Papa and their four children all pitch in to get the job done in time for tomorrow's celebration. The young children find its not so easy to fetch the milk from the cow, eggs from the henhouse, and flour from the mill. They return home covered with milk and flour, and fewer eggs than hoped, but Mama responds with laughter and warmly hugs them as she says, "Now, how can I be upset when I know my babies did their best." This is a story of a very loving family that works together to find a solution to their problem. It is based on true stories that author Lindsey heard about from her own family history.
This is a positive, heart-warming story that would appeal to children in grades KG to 3rd grade. The reading level is about third grade (listed as a 3.9 book in the Accelerated Reader program). The illustrations add high interest to the story with a lively, colorful, and flowing artistic style. Very well-done picture book with a great story!
This is a positive, heart-warming story that would appeal to children in grades KG to 3rd grade. The reading level is about third grade (listed as a 3.9 book in the Accelerated Reader program). The illustrations add high interest to the story with a lively, colorful, and flowing artistic style. Very well-done picture book with a great story!
November 9, 2018
Sweet Potato Pie by Kathleen D. Lindsey is a wonderful portrayal of a African American family who has been devastated by the 1920's drought. This is a realistic fiction book where the family is very poor and was in desperate need to pay for their family farm. This book beautifully shows a hardworking family who is living in poverty. I believe this story would be interesting to children because it is about a young girl elementary school age who goes on a journey to save her families farm. It is a book that can be relate-able to young children whose family is living in poverty, and it offers a topic to be considered among children who do not have any experience with living in poverty. The book is very age appropriate for elementary age children, though the length of the text would be geared more towards upper elementary students in my opinion. The problem and solution aspect of this book makes for a great lesson for students-through hard work the impossible can be possible! The illustrations were beautifully done, they are bright and very abstract. The characters dress and appearance is accurate for the setting it takes place in and they aided in holding my interest throughout the book. There is so much detail, and many things on each page to hold a child's attention. Lindsey did an excellent job of portraying the characters in a positive way. She did not play on the fact they are a poor African American family but instead she highlighted the families perseverance in light of their situation.
October 18, 2017
In this story, a young girl named Sadie's family is struggling after a drought causes their family farm to fail. The only crop left to use is the sweet potatoes, but what good will that do? Sadie encourages her mother to make her famous sweet potato pie, go into town, and sell them. This plan works! I really enjoyed this book, and I would definitely use this book in my classroom. It is a story of triumph, and I like that it includes other cultures. This book would be useful for teaching the reading strategy of making predictions.
August 29, 2019
What a cute story about the power of family! The story starts out by the family finding out that the bank wants to take their land away if they can't pay off all of their debt quickly. It has been a hard year for crops and the only thing the family really has is Sweet Potatoes; they think all is lost. But then Mama has a brilliant idea! The family comes together and works hard to save their family in the 'nick of time!
November 27, 2019
A lovely book! It brought tears to my eyes. Encourages family, togetherness, resilience and parental love.
It also contains a recipe for pie crust and sweet potato pie in the back of the book, which was a pleasant surprise!
A great story for children and adults alike!
It also contains a recipe for pie crust and sweet potato pie in the back of the book, which was a pleasant surprise!
A great story for children and adults alike!
June 17, 2019
Good for financial literacy. Using what you have to make a product people want and no competition as more one else had sweet potato pie.
October 6, 2023
I nice discovery thanks to a recommendation that goes along with some other picture books about personal finance and food!
March 12, 2013
Summary
This historical-fiction book is about a family that owns a farm and depends on their crops to give them money to live with. There were five children and a mother and father in this story. The father and the children work on the farm until there is a drought and all of the crops that were on the farm are dried up and they cannot pay back the money that they borrowed to buy the land. Mama made some sweet potato pie to help make the children and the father feel better, and that’s when Mama thought of a great idea to save their farm and their crops.
Response
What I noticed most about this book was the illustrations. There were pictures that described the text on each page and help the reader understand more about the story. There are illustrations on each page and I believe that the illustrator intended to have the pictures not clean and precise to add element to the story. I gave this book a five-star rating because I felt that the book did a great job with the storyline, describing step by step with all the characters in the book and what the children had to do in order to help their family save their crops.
Classroom Connection
I believe that this book would help teach the children about teamwork and never giving up. For my lesson I would ask the students questions about what they know about crops, rain and what they feel is necessary to grow vegetables. This would get the children interested in the book and would allow me to begin reading. Next, I would be able to pull some vocabulary words from the text so that it will help with the students’ comprehension of the story. After reading the story I would be able to check their comprehension by asking them to write a few sentences summarizing the book and I could have a literary discussion. I found this lesson on http://www.leeandlow.com/p/sweet_pota....
Lexile/Guided Reading Level
The lexile for this book is NC860L. There is no guided reading level available. This book would be appropriate for grades 4-6 for a read aloud and should be read independently by grade 6.
This historical-fiction book is about a family that owns a farm and depends on their crops to give them money to live with. There were five children and a mother and father in this story. The father and the children work on the farm until there is a drought and all of the crops that were on the farm are dried up and they cannot pay back the money that they borrowed to buy the land. Mama made some sweet potato pie to help make the children and the father feel better, and that’s when Mama thought of a great idea to save their farm and their crops.
Response
What I noticed most about this book was the illustrations. There were pictures that described the text on each page and help the reader understand more about the story. There are illustrations on each page and I believe that the illustrator intended to have the pictures not clean and precise to add element to the story. I gave this book a five-star rating because I felt that the book did a great job with the storyline, describing step by step with all the characters in the book and what the children had to do in order to help their family save their crops.
Classroom Connection
I believe that this book would help teach the children about teamwork and never giving up. For my lesson I would ask the students questions about what they know about crops, rain and what they feel is necessary to grow vegetables. This would get the children interested in the book and would allow me to begin reading. Next, I would be able to pull some vocabulary words from the text so that it will help with the students’ comprehension of the story. After reading the story I would be able to check their comprehension by asking them to write a few sentences summarizing the book and I could have a literary discussion. I found this lesson on http://www.leeandlow.com/p/sweet_pota....
Lexile/Guided Reading Level
The lexile for this book is NC860L. There is no guided reading level available. This book would be appropriate for grades 4-6 for a read aloud and should be read independently by grade 6.
March 20, 2013
Summary/ Annotation: This is a wonderful picture book about a family in which there is a mother and father and five children who own a farm. In the story the farm suffers a drought which ruins the crops and everyone is very devastated. The mother decides to make some sweet potato pie to cheer everyone up. Then she comes up with a new idea to sell the pies in a Harvest Celebration. The family works together to make the delicious pies and their pies were so popular and it was a great success.
Response: I really loved this book. It made me feel so happy how the family worked together and stood side by side in times of trouble. I am a very family oriented person. I feel that if families work together and stand together they can accomplish and get through anything. I think this book did a great job in expressing that.
I rated this book four stars because it teaches good family values. I would love to share this book with everyone. It is a nice book for children as well. The illustrations were nice as well.
Classroom Connection: This is a great book to read as a whole class. I liked how their was a recipe for the pie in the book. After reading this book I would give my students an assignment to create a dessert such as pie or cookies with their families. I would have the students write down the recipes and bring the dessert and recipes to class. Then I would have students make nice recipe cards to display in the classroom. This would give children a chance to bond with their families, bond in class with other students and also teach them about measurements in the process of making their recipes.
Text Complexity: Lexile.com recommended the lexile measure to be 860. I think it would be appropriate for students who are in 3rd grade and higher. By third grade students should be able to read this book independently. There are many parts of the story where students might not understand what is being said because of the way the characters speak to each other. Assignments should be adjusted according to grade level.
Response: I really loved this book. It made me feel so happy how the family worked together and stood side by side in times of trouble. I am a very family oriented person. I feel that if families work together and stand together they can accomplish and get through anything. I think this book did a great job in expressing that.
I rated this book four stars because it teaches good family values. I would love to share this book with everyone. It is a nice book for children as well. The illustrations were nice as well.
Classroom Connection: This is a great book to read as a whole class. I liked how their was a recipe for the pie in the book. After reading this book I would give my students an assignment to create a dessert such as pie or cookies with their families. I would have the students write down the recipes and bring the dessert and recipes to class. Then I would have students make nice recipe cards to display in the classroom. This would give children a chance to bond with their families, bond in class with other students and also teach them about measurements in the process of making their recipes.
Text Complexity: Lexile.com recommended the lexile measure to be 860. I think it would be appropriate for students who are in 3rd grade and higher. By third grade students should be able to read this book independently. There are many parts of the story where students might not understand what is being said because of the way the characters speak to each other. Assignments should be adjusted according to grade level.
February 19, 2013
Summary
This book is about what a family does in order to save their farm. The family works together to make as many pies as possible to sell at the Harvest Fest to try to make money in order to keep their farm. The family uses all they have left to make the pies. The only crops that was left from their harvest were sweet potatoes. The illustrations are beautiful! They tied directly in with what the author wrote.
Responses
I gave this book five stars because I loved the overall classroom theme. I thought the author wrote a great book with great illustrations.
This book made me feel very happy. I felt that the family was very close and did whatever they could to get by. I think this is a great theme to teach children.
Classroom Connections
I feel that this is directly related to the concept of never giving up. The family did not give up when they did not have much left and did not know how they were going to pay the bills. They just used what they had and kept going.
I believe that it also shows children what happens when teamwork is fully utilized. When working together, anything can be accomplished. Children need to be reminded of this often.
CCSS Range
According to lexile.com, the lexile index of this book is 860L. I believe that this book is a great book to read aloud to first graders. The illustrations are busy enough to keep students attention. I believe that students should be able to read this book independently by around second and third grade. There are plenty of words on there pages and I feel that a strong second grade reader should be able to finish it.
This book is about what a family does in order to save their farm. The family works together to make as many pies as possible to sell at the Harvest Fest to try to make money in order to keep their farm. The family uses all they have left to make the pies. The only crops that was left from their harvest were sweet potatoes. The illustrations are beautiful! They tied directly in with what the author wrote.
Responses
I gave this book five stars because I loved the overall classroom theme. I thought the author wrote a great book with great illustrations.
This book made me feel very happy. I felt that the family was very close and did whatever they could to get by. I think this is a great theme to teach children.
Classroom Connections
I feel that this is directly related to the concept of never giving up. The family did not give up when they did not have much left and did not know how they were going to pay the bills. They just used what they had and kept going.
I believe that it also shows children what happens when teamwork is fully utilized. When working together, anything can be accomplished. Children need to be reminded of this often.
CCSS Range
According to lexile.com, the lexile index of this book is 860L. I believe that this book is a great book to read aloud to first graders. The illustrations are busy enough to keep students attention. I believe that students should be able to read this book independently by around second and third grade. There are plenty of words on there pages and I feel that a strong second grade reader should be able to finish it.
March 4, 2013
Summary:
When a family is running low on money, they have no idea what to do get enough money to save their farm. When the young daughter comes up with the idea to sell her momma's sweet potato pie's at the local Harvest Celebration, the family puts all hand on board to make it a success. They work together to make the pies, get them to the fair, and promote them until they sell out. The crowd loved the pies so much that they even started taking orders for more. The family got really excited to work together and took this as a great way to bond as a family.
Response:
I enjoyed reading this book because of the feeling it gave me. It had a "feel-good" feeling to it. Even though I was not really able to relate to it, I felt happy for the family and really got into the story.
This book sends a message of coming together to work towards a common goal. The family in the book seemed close to begin with, but when they took on this project to sell their momma's sweet potato pie, they got excited and worked together.
Classroom Connection:
The end of this book has the recipes for "Mama's Sweet Potato Pie" and "Mama's Extra-Flaky Pie Crust". The students could come together, like the family in the book, and make their own sweet potato pie's. I remember doing that with Stone Soup in elementary school so I think students would enjoy this as well.
Text Complexity:
There was not an interest level or grade equivalent for this book on scholastic.com, but I feel that this book would be able to be read independently by children in grades 3+. There is a lot of conversation in the story that younger kids might have trouble reading through. The lexile for this book is 860.
When a family is running low on money, they have no idea what to do get enough money to save their farm. When the young daughter comes up with the idea to sell her momma's sweet potato pie's at the local Harvest Celebration, the family puts all hand on board to make it a success. They work together to make the pies, get them to the fair, and promote them until they sell out. The crowd loved the pies so much that they even started taking orders for more. The family got really excited to work together and took this as a great way to bond as a family.
Response:
I enjoyed reading this book because of the feeling it gave me. It had a "feel-good" feeling to it. Even though I was not really able to relate to it, I felt happy for the family and really got into the story.
This book sends a message of coming together to work towards a common goal. The family in the book seemed close to begin with, but when they took on this project to sell their momma's sweet potato pie, they got excited and worked together.
Classroom Connection:
The end of this book has the recipes for "Mama's Sweet Potato Pie" and "Mama's Extra-Flaky Pie Crust". The students could come together, like the family in the book, and make their own sweet potato pie's. I remember doing that with Stone Soup in elementary school so I think students would enjoy this as well.
Text Complexity:
There was not an interest level or grade equivalent for this book on scholastic.com, but I feel that this book would be able to be read independently by children in grades 3+. There is a lot of conversation in the story that younger kids might have trouble reading through. The lexile for this book is 860.
March 21, 2013
Sweet Potato Pie
Summary: This is a story of a family who works together in a time of desperate need. All the members in the family did what they could to save their family farm. The illustrations in this book are bold and colorful.
Response: I gave this book five stars because I love the message. To me the message of the book is to never give up and when working hard anything can be obtained. I believe this is a powerful and meaningful message for children of all ages. I feel like children give up very easily because they feel like they have no other choice, this book demonstrates the importance of not giving up.
Classroom Connection: For this classroom connection I’d give each stunt a crossword puzzle containing vocab words to work on individually. Once about five minutes passed I’d allow students to break off into small groups of six and work together. That way they will be able to complete the crossword puzzle together using teamwork just as the family did in the story.
CCSS: The lexile measure of Sweet Potato pie is 860L. There is no guided reading level listed but if I had to guess I’d say students in fourth grade would be able to read this story independently.
Summary: This is a story of a family who works together in a time of desperate need. All the members in the family did what they could to save their family farm. The illustrations in this book are bold and colorful.
Response: I gave this book five stars because I love the message. To me the message of the book is to never give up and when working hard anything can be obtained. I believe this is a powerful and meaningful message for children of all ages. I feel like children give up very easily because they feel like they have no other choice, this book demonstrates the importance of not giving up.
Classroom Connection: For this classroom connection I’d give each stunt a crossword puzzle containing vocab words to work on individually. Once about five minutes passed I’d allow students to break off into small groups of six and work together. That way they will be able to complete the crossword puzzle together using teamwork just as the family did in the story.
CCSS: The lexile measure of Sweet Potato pie is 860L. There is no guided reading level listed but if I had to guess I’d say students in fourth grade would be able to read this story independently.
November 2, 2009
Gr. 1-3. Hardship and loss yield sweet results in this homespun tale of a family's collective efforts to save their farm from the auction block. Sadie's family is thrown into turmoil after a drought destroys all but their sweet potato crop. As the mortgage comes due, it looks like the family will have to sell their beloved property until Mama comes up with the idea that they should sell her sweet potato pies instead. Everyone in the family helps make the pies, which win a blue ribbon and plant the seeds of a lucrative family enterprise. First-time author Lindsey's down-home storytelling quality is charming and Riley-Webb's picture of the "Sweet Potato" quilt recalls Faith Ringgold's use of unique quilt illustrations in Dinner at Aunt Connie's House (1993). The artwork's broad, energetic strokes and strong color palette sweep children into this tasty tale, and the included pie recipe makes the experience complete.
-Terry Glover (Booklist Review)
-Terry Glover (Booklist Review)
February 26, 2015
Reaction: I thought this story was really good. My favorite part of the book was the illustrations. I thought the colors added a lot to story as well as detail. I also enjoyed the story line because it is about a hard working family. I thought it was cute too they included a recipe for the pies they talk about in the story.
Purpose:
Independent: I think this book would be good for a second grader to read independently. The story has a good message to it that everyone can benefit from. The pictures will keep them entertained because they have a lot to look at. The word choice isn't too hard but still provides room for new vocabulary.
Read Aloud: I think this book provides a lot of room for discussion about hard work. Students can dive in to a moral discussion about life and what they learned from the story. There is also plenty of new vocabulary that can be discussed among the students too.
Purpose:
Independent: I think this book would be good for a second grader to read independently. The story has a good message to it that everyone can benefit from. The pictures will keep them entertained because they have a lot to look at. The word choice isn't too hard but still provides room for new vocabulary.
Read Aloud: I think this book provides a lot of room for discussion about hard work. Students can dive in to a moral discussion about life and what they learned from the story. There is also plenty of new vocabulary that can be discussed among the students too.
July 26, 2008
This story is about a family in tough economic times who is in danger of losing their farm. The family in this story decide to work together to pay back the loan. They decide to make sweet potato pies to sell at the Harvest Celebration. The pies are a huge success and people come from all over the festival to eat the pies. The father even sneaks one of the pies into the pie contest and it wins first place! The pie selling is such a success that the family goes home to make pies all night to fill the orders they took at the festival. The family works together and works hard enough to earn enough money to save their home and farm!
February 22, 2015
Overall, Sweet Potato Pie was not my favorite. The story itself was fine but in general I got bored reading it. The illustrations were the best part of the book, having lots of different vibrant colors and visible brush strokes.
I believe if you were to have this book in the classroom it would be best suited for second or third grades to read during reading time. The language is descriptive and would expose the kids to new words. The book serves as a reminder to children of the importance of working together and that hard work can pay off. I would not consider this book to be a must read though.
I believe if you were to have this book in the classroom it would be best suited for second or third grades to read during reading time. The language is descriptive and would expose the kids to new words. The book serves as a reminder to children of the importance of working together and that hard work can pay off. I would not consider this book to be a must read though.
November 1, 2009
Summary-
Kathleen Lindsey created this picture book for children in grades k-3. During a severe drought, one family needed to find a way to make money. Desperate and frustrated, the mother came up with a plan in order to save the family farm. Mother had always made delicious sweet potato pies. The whole family worked diligently at collecting the ingredients and actually baking the pies, so she decided to try to sell them at the Harvest Festival in town. The pies went over beautifully and the family sold enough to keep the farm! She even had orders for the weeks to come.
Kathleen Lindsey created this picture book for children in grades k-3. During a severe drought, one family needed to find a way to make money. Desperate and frustrated, the mother came up with a plan in order to save the family farm. Mother had always made delicious sweet potato pies. The whole family worked diligently at collecting the ingredients and actually baking the pies, so she decided to try to sell them at the Harvest Festival in town. The pies went over beautifully and the family sold enough to keep the farm! She even had orders for the weeks to come.
November 21, 2014
This is a heart-warming story about the entrepreneurial and creative spirit that helps to save a family's farm. The narrative is short enough to keep a child's interest and the illustrations are colorful and really complement the story. We were inspired by the way that the whole family pitches in to help the cause and we loved the ending.
It's a fun story to read aloud and we really enjoyed reading it together. I've read this book a couple of times.
It's a fun story to read aloud and we really enjoyed reading it together. I've read this book a couple of times.
March 5, 2010
This is a great book! It is about a farmer who is about to lose his farm , because he owes the bank for a loan. However, his wife makes a wonderful sweet potato pie at the Harvest Celebration and they were able to keep their farm.
April 7, 2011
This book represents the African American farming culture and it even has a sweet potato pie recipe in the back. It is a bit wordier than most other books so it may not be ideal to read aloud in one sitting.
November 10, 2012
Pb 20. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was colorful and crazy and fun to even look at. The story was both funny and heart-warming and I loved reading it. You could almost feel the warmth and love of the book in the illustrations.
December 7, 2012
Sweet Potato Pie is a wonderful book that shows how a family should work with each other during a time of hardship. I think it shows students that they should help out with their family whenever possible.
Read
May 23, 2016During a drought in the early 1900s, a large loving African American family finds a delicious way to earn the money they need to save their family farm.
April 27, 2012
I love this book. It is a great book to teach about scarcity.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews