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The Last Stand
CCBC Review:
“On Saturdays, we harvest, Papa and I.” Papa is the young narrator’s grandfather. Saturdays they take Papa’s garden bounty—peppers, plums, pumpkins—along with eggs the boy gathers from the chickens to the farmer’s market in town. Papa has the last and only market stand still operating in their Black community. Papa’s movements are “slow and steady” as they work serving the people who come to buy fresh produce and eggs, like Ms. Rosa and Mr. Johnny. On the way home, they drop off a basket of plums at Mrs. Brown’s. It’s dark when they get back home, “the star-speckled sky black as only a town without streetlights could be …” The next Saturday, and the one after that, Papa is too tired to harvest and work the stand, so the boy does his best on his own, making deliveries by bike the first week, and pulling a wagon into town to open the stand on his own the second. His wagon is still heavy on the way home, but now it’s “loaded with well wishes for Papa,” a bounty of homemade food from customers—pumpkin pie, candied plums, stuffed peppers. This love letter to Black farmers and community that also acknowledges challenges is paired with distinctive illustrations created from hand stamps and digitally colored. In a moving, powerful note, the author discusses his childhood community, and the disappearance of Black farmers and rise of food desserts nationally, touching on the complicated social and political history of each. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Jarrett Pumphrey, Jerome Pumphrey
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 6-9
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
African Americans
Community
Gardens and Gardening
Grandfathers
Responsibility
Diversity subject:
Black/African
Publishers:
Alfred A. Knopf, Penguin Random House, Random House
Publish Year: 2024
Pages: 40
ISBN: 9780593480571
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Eady