Do you have a little one that likes to play pretend? I do, and I have the perfect book to add to our creative play with the Farmers Market: Create-and-Play activity book. This softcover book comes from the best-selling author, Deanna F. Cook who also wrote Cooking Class. Farmers Market features 100 stickers and nearly 150 punch-out games and crafts to provide hours of hands-on, imaginative fun.

With the help of this softcover book your kids have everything at their disposal to set up their own pretend farm right inside the walls of your house, from farm to produce stand. Hands-on fun include gardening with tools, fruit and veggie punch outs and even a toy tractor. This book has every little detail covered an even includes sign stickers, price tags, shopping lists, and an adorable shoebox cash register. The illustrations for the fruits and veggies are top of the line and printed on heavy card stock. I found that laminating them has helped them survive my 2 year-olds handling but that is totally optional as the paper is heavy to begin with. 

This is a fantastic book for any child or adult who likes to play pretend. My 7 year-old daughter received this book in her stack of books at Christmas and it was a hit the minute she tore the wrapping off. We quickly dove right into the book and started setting up our produce stand. The included shopping lists and farmer’s market checklists complete this activity book by tying real life into pretend. Once spring arrives I plan to visit a real farmer’s market and take the included checklist to see how many colorful fruits and veggies we can buy and taste. My daughter is rather picky so maybe this will help her to try as many new fruits and veggies as possible.

I love how it includes everything we needed and the attention to detail is amazing. The recommended age range is 4 to 8 but I found my 2 and 10 year-olds really enjoyed playing make believe too with this set. The book also teaches reading, science, math, and healthy eating skills along with pretend play and it is a huge hit in our household. The book retails for just $14.95 and would be a great birthday gift or even Easter gift as spring is normally planting season.

-Product review by Jacquelin Caffey, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April, 2017