I loved the first volume of Oddball Histories from Andy Warner, focusing on pets, with a fun blend of fact, humor, and cheerful art. 
However, I am blown away by his next volume featuring plants, particularly the foods.
Warner divides this dense subject into ten broad categories; Wood, wheat, corn, rice, peppers, sugar, potatoes, tea, tulips, and cotton. Readers who have even a passing knowledge of history are going to look at that list and think there’s no way this author could fit all that into a children’s book, let alone offer a respectful treatment of indigenous cultures, acknowledgement of historical inequities and trauma, and still make it a funny book the kids will love to read.
But, amazingly, he does! Each chapter is packed with information and Warner focuses front and center on the indigenous, enslaved, immigrant, and marginalized cultures that domesticated, farmed, and cultivated the crops that changed the world. He doesn’t shy away from the brutal facts of colonization, enslavement, famine, and environmental destruction, but treats these sensitive subjects respectfully with a dry sense of humor.
The art is full of fine details, clean lines, and bold colors. There are several narrative threads to follow in the book; mostly wordless panels, with a scattering of word bubbles, illustrate the general narrative and add humorous commentary. The panels also regularly open out into wider images showing maps and scenery to give more context. The general narration is shown in colored boxes, shifting color for each chapter. There are also short sentences in larger font focusing on various points in the narration.
A spread from the chapter on corn is a good example of the many details in Warner’s layout. Two sentences in large type, against a salmon-pink background, describe the city of Tenochtitlan. A large illustration spreading across the top of two pages lays out the city, showing the bridges and canals across the lake. A series of panels on the bottom half illustrates the floating gardens, or chinampas, with indigenous workers, joking about living in a lake or popping out of the panel to yell “Poop power!” The last panel shows a startled farmer in a cornfield who says “Excuse me?” to the arrival of a duo of armor-clad Spanish explorers and a priest who declare “We’re here for your peppers and gold! Oh, we’ll also give you a bunch of diseases and kill you.”
The introduction also offers an opportunity to read each chapter as a separate narrative or to follow the overarching narrative via footnotes and warns readers that the book deals with difficult and serious subjects, but there are also lots of “dumb jokes to make the whole thing go down easy.” Readers will groan at the puns, smirk at the snarky comments of Irish farmers struggling to survive, and learn about investments while shaking their heads at the wild story of the craze for tulips. The book ends with a reflection on the intersections of history, environment, and the food we grow and eat, speculating on the future, and encouraging readers to focus on the way we are all connected.
This book reminded me vividly of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales which manage to bring tragic, often bloody events to life with humor and heart. Even if readers aren’t inspired to delve deeper into the various subjects that are introduced, they will have gotten an excellent introduction to world history, plenty of food for thought, and a new appreciation of the plants around us.
Oddball Histories: Spices and Spuds
By Andy Warner
Little Brown, 2024
ISBN: 9780316498272
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
