Review: Fruits by Valerie Bloom, illustrated by David Axtell

‘Five jew-plum, I can’t believe it!

How them know jew-plum’s me fav’rit?’

With the help of her baby sister, a Caribbean girl finds cunning ways to count and, mostly, eat delicious tropical fruits without her parents knowing. 

Whether she's nabbing three sweet-sops via an open window, hiding eight oranges in her summer dress, or stashing two guavas for a nighttime feast, each playful spread reveals the child's delightful thought process when confronted by a colourful array of irresistible homegrown treats.  

Reading this prize-winning rhyming counting book for the first time in years feels like coming home —comforting in the current racial climate. 

Originally published in the UK in 1997, it was part of a wave of outstanding Black picture books that included Amazing Grace (Hoffman and Binch, 1991), Handa's Surprise (Eileen Browne, 1994), Marty Monster (Blackman and Harley, 1999), and So Much (Cooke and Oxenbury, 1994). Most of these books are still in print and, thankfully, Macmillan had the foresight to resurrect Fruits too, publishing this new edition in 2019.

Renowned Jamaican-born poet Bloom uses text from her anthology Duppy Jamboree (1992) to form the basis of the picture book. The rhyming quatrains are supported by David Axtell’s richly textured oil-on-canvas illustrations of the 90s, which are well informed and add extra layers of meaning. 

The imposing burnt orange gates that dominate the front and back endpapers entice readers into the family's luscious backyard full of edibles, almost as if the girls are letting us in on their secret game. Axtell also takes great care to vary the skin tones of each family member to ensure his representation of Black people is authentic.

The overall result of Bloom's authentic text and Axtell's images is a book that is totally uninhibited in its portrayal of Caribbean language, life, food, and culture as well as our often wry sense of humour (well, I can only speak for Jamaicans on the latter). 

And, despite being purposely non-island-specific, Fruits is a fantastic example of own-voice poetry which is best performed aloud. When it is read by an adult, children in KS1 can hear the rhythm and rhyme, absorb the Patois speech patterns, and learn the names of Caribbean fruits. (An informative glossary at the back describes the least familiar fruits as well as the meaning of the word 'smaddy'.) 

Although the text is essentially a counting poem supporting number knowledge up to 10, poet Valerie Bloom starts with 'half a paw-paw' which fits the main theme of food while gently introducing the concept of fractions within real-life contexts. I could imagine children preparing Caribbean fruit snacks for a world-food tuck shop, counting out the fruits and cutting them into halves and quarters. They could also create price lists/labels, writing the names of fruits and numbers in words or figures. They may also enjoy solving word problems based on scenarios from the text. Children needing an extra challenge could calculate the total number of fruits the girl has eaten. 

The text might also inspire children to talk about their favourite fruits and write/perform a fruit poem. This could also lead nicely into discussions about eating a balanced diet and why eating too much fruit is not necessarily good for you. Children could make posters explaining to the book's main character why eating too many sugary fruits is unhealthy or they could create a balanced plate of food (PSHE/science).

Playful,  joyous, and lyrical, this beautiful text is an absolute treat for the ears and heart. If it doesn’t ‘reflect realities’ then I don’t know what does! 

Notes for teachers and parents

I’m unsure about the origins of the Jamaican name ‘jew-plum’. I suspect it’s a mishearing of ‘June plum’, which is an alternative name for the same fruit. If in doubt you can substitute 'jew-plum' for ‘June plum’ as they’re interchangeable. Tobagonians and Grenadians use the term ‘golden apple’ for the same fruit.

Many of the fruits in the book may be difficult to source in the UK so you might be limited as to what you can find in big supermarkets. There are some specialist suppliers, particularly in Harlesden, West London, who now offer online services. If you do find the fruits, they will need to be peeled and deseeded before giving them to the children, due to having thick skins. It might be easier to use bananas, oranges, paw-paws, and, perhaps, avocados (not in the text) for a cooking activity.

When writing fruit poems, children could be encouraged to include foods from their own cultural experience. 

Video about Soursoup (sweetsop and Jamaican tropical fruits) 

Guide for teachers and parents

Genre	Poetry: structured food poem from another culture
Child-led interests (EYFS)	cooking, my family, home corner/role play
Age group (EYFS, KS1, KS2)	KS1
Curriculum links/topics (EYFS/NC)	Speaking and listening (Y1-6): listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates Reading comprehension (Y2): listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related recognising simple recurring literary language in stories and poetry discussing and clarifying the meanings of words, linking new meanings to known vocabulary discussing their favourite words and phrases continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, appreciating these and reciting some, with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher making inferences on the basis of what is being said and done answering and asking questions predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far participate in discussion about books, poems and other works that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and other material, both those that they listen to and those that they read for themselves Number: number and place value: read and write numbers to at least 100 in numerals and in words Number: addition and subtraction: solve problems with addition and subtraction:  using concrete objects and pictorial representations, including those involving numbers, quantities and measures  applying their increasing knowledge of mental and written methods Number fractions: recognise, find, name and write fractions  1/2 or 1/4 ....of a length, shape, set of objects or quantity Science (Y2): Animals including humans: describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene PSHE: preferences (likes and dislikes); healthy eating/balanced plate
Suitability	whole-class teaching, storytime, class/school library, home library
General features	rhythmic, rhyming quatrains; first-person; numbers to ten in words; Jamaican Patois; supporting illustrations adding extra detail; unfamiliar vocab, eg, paw-paw, sweet-sop, guinep, jackfruit, etc

All the Black children's books that I review are checked against my Jericho Benchmark.