Paco and the Ocean His Ancestors Crossed

Nobody in the Great Garden talks about adventure more than Paco Potato. Every Tuesday he stands on the compost heap and tells the Sproutlings that something wonderful waits beyond the fence. But when a cold mountain wind blows in from nowhere, Paco is about to find out that talking about bravery and being brave are two very different things.Rootwise Rowan opens a glowing blue tunnel, and Paco steps through to the Andes Mountains of Peru, where potatoes have grown for eight thousand years. On a stone terrace above the clouds he finds a map his ancestors left behind: mountains, a coast, and then nothing but blank cloth. From a Spanish harbour in 1586, across a storm-tossed Atlantic, by the Canary Islands and Seville to the green hills of Ireland and a Bristol market where people weren’t sure the strange new food was safe to eat, Paco follows the crossing his family made long before anyone knew what came next.The Root Kingdom: Paco and the Ocean His Ancestors Crossed is a real-history picture book wrapped in gentle magic - part of The Root Kingdom, a universe of fruit and vegetable characters whose stories are rooted in true food history. It is a story about where we come from, and about the quiet kind of courage it takes to go anyway.Along the way, young readers meet a wise old farmer in the Andes, a sailor who sneezes at every barrel of potatoes, and a storm that tests Paco’s courage when the precious seed potatoes break loose - and they learn the real story of how the potato travelled from South America to Britain, without it ever feeling like a lesson.Perfect for:- Bedtime reading and classroom read-alouds- Curious children aged 5-8 who ask where their food comes from- Families with roots in more than one place- Little adventurers who need to hear that being brave means being scared and going anywayAdventure begins when you’re brave enough to take the first step.#GrowCurious