I’m going to try to make this post a weekly ritual. Vermont is the state for this week, with lots of snow in the book forecast. And farms, lots of farms. With fifty states to travel to, by way of the best picture books I can find, this journey should take about a year.

Vermont

• Motto: Freedom and Unity
• Nickname: Green Mountain State
• State Flower: Red Clover
• State Bird: Hermit Thrush

1. Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Illustrated by Mary Azarian. HMH Books, 2009. This Caldecott Award-winning books tells the story of Wilson Bentley, a man who fell in love with snowflakes and their delicate and varied shapes and patterns as a boy in Vermont and grew up to spend his life photographing them.
2. Sugaring by Jessie Haas. Illustrated by Jos. A Smith.  Greenwillow, 1996. This picture book is the third in a series of books about Nora and her grandparents’ lives and work on a Vermont farm.
3. Nora’s Ark by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCullly. HarperCollins, 2005. Nora’s Ark is based on a real event: the Vermont flood of 1927. In the story, Nora and her family take refuge in Grandma’s house, up on a hilltop.
4. Snow Comes to the Farm by Nathaniel Tripp. Illustrated by Kate Kiesler.  Candlewick, 2001.
5. Aaron and His Green Mountain Boys by Patricia Lee Gauch.  Illustrated by Margot Tomes.  Calkins Creek, 2005. 64 pages. This easy reader is set during the Revolutionary War in Bennington, Vermont.
6. The Canada Geese Quilt by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock.  Illustrated by Leslie Bowman.  Dutton, 1989. 60 pages. Another easy reader/early chapter book in which Ariel and her grandmother work together to piece a quilt.
7. Fanny in the Kitchen by Deborah Hopkinson. Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter.  Atheneum,  2001. Subtitled The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements. Who knew that Fanny Farmer, of cookbook fame, was from Vermont?
8. Kitty and Mr. Kipling: Neighbors in Vermont by Lenore Blegvad. Illustrated by Erik Blegvad. Margaret K. McElderry, 2005. And who knew that Rudyard Kipling ever lived in Vermont? This historical fiction tale shares the story Kipling and a neighbor girl named Kitty.
9. Champ and Me by the Maple Tree: A Vermont Tale by Ed Shankman. Illustrated by Dave O’Neill. Commonwealth, 2010. Champ the Monster of Champlain Lake is best friends with the narrator of this rhyming tour through the Vermont countryside.
10. Sleep Tight Farm: A Farm Prepares for Winter by Eugenie Doyle. Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. Chronicle Books, 2016. A farm family gets ready for a Vermont winter.

So, what did I leave out? Any Vermonters out there know of a great Vermont picture book not to be missed?