FARMING

The first part of this America at Work entry (see Drake, above) concentrates on Nick's life on an environmentally friendly onion farm, where his chores include sprouting and planting seedlings, watering, tending, and harvesting the onions. The second half focuses on Karin, who has grown up on a cattle ranch. Her chores include participating in summer cattle drives and rounding up cattle to be sold come fall. In spring there are new calves to care for, and branding. The text, along with Cupples's pleasant illustrations, make farming seem hard but profitable; unmentioned are the enormous struggles most farmers face to earn a living and maintain a family-run farm these days. With so many family farms going under, this book paints an unrealistic picture of rural life. Love and Drake skirt cattle-raising issues, too, e.g., the problems of overgrazing in the west, and pollution problems in the Midwest created by giant feedlots. A simplistic overview that presents the heart of farmers' lives, but not necessarily the meat. (index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)