LETTUCE GET IN TROUBLE

Lettuce Get in Trouble is a brand new picture book that gives kids a glimpse into the life of a small lady who had a big love for design, practicality, and problem solving. 

Meet Sara Little Turnbull, "a troublemaker of the best sort", whose favorite question was: "WHY?" 

Sara Little was a small dynamo (under five feet tall!) and is a wonderful example for young designers and thinkers. When I started exploring her bio I was immediately reminded of the THE INCREDIBLES diminutive costume designer Edna "E" Mode and her inspiration, Hollywood designer Edith Head.

The Center for Design Books is launching a children's book series called Sara Little Trouble Maker, which is based on Sara and her design work. This first book, Lettuce Get in Trouble, is available May 17, 2022. Author Linda Kuo and illustrator Mariana Rio have done a fabulous job in making Sara come to life in lively text and fun retro illustrations for children... 

Young readers will learn how Sara's wise mother teaches her to look at beauty in the shapes and colors of food as they cook in their modest Brooklyn kitchen. Later, when Sara is grown up and working in New York, we see that her gift for observation helps her answer lots of questions at the start of her career in product development.  

One of the most pressing problems she tackles is from the Ministry of Food asking for help because "children seem to have stopped eating vegetables."  Her response is, "Have you talked to the children?"

This is where the story gets fun! Sara brings children from all over the world to her Little Lab in New York City to explore not only the importance of vegetables, but the ingenuity of design in the colors and shapes of food.  She discovers that many of the children believe that vegetables only come from cans.

Sara teaches them about design ("To design is to look for connections" and "Good design solves problems and also makes the world more beautiful and fun") and why vegetables are important. Together they design a Grand Event. She encourages them to make fun and tasty creations under big tents in a park.

Inside one tent are Lotus leaf plates, lettuce cups, wild grass straws... a zero-waste lunch.

Lin rolls out wraps with the children and shows off her almond butter and strawberry jelly burrito.

One child sprinkles mint leaves on tacos filled with bright orange carrots and red peppers.

I think any child who reads this book will be inspired about design and try some imaginative food combinations of their own after seeing all the fun and colorful geometric illustrations! I certainly was!

The first person to leave a comment below is welcome to my beautiful review copy of Lettuce Get in Trouble. After you leave a comment, please email me at [spam]wendyb1963@[spam]sbcglobal.net to send me your mailing address.

You can read more about the real Sara Little Turnbull at https://www.saralittleturnbull.com/about and here in the Fortune article: https://fortune.com/2022/03/08/women-history-never-heard-of-design-careers-pioneers-work-success-sara-little-paula-rees/