Linda Ashman

SAMANTHA is one of ten picture books on the New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2011 list. "This ode to the glorious adventures — if also perils — of benign neglect pairs Ashman’s perfectly rhymed text with Davenier’s animated, humorous ­drawings."

SAMANTHA is illustrated by the fabulous Christine Davenier, and is on the inaugural list of Margaret Ferguson Books, an imprint of Farrar Straus Giroux.

Now that I'm of a certain age, I feel compelled to do a little proselytizing. I became a vegetarian more than 20 years ago, after reading the first edition of John Robbins's Diet for a New America about the horrors of factory farming. All these years later, little has changed despite plenty of documentation about the inhumane treatment of animals at most of these facilities and the egregious impacts this type of production (it's hard to call it farming) has on the environment and human health. If you're still eating meat, read Food Matters by Mark Bittman (for the gentler approach, with plenty of good vegetarian recipes), Farm Sanctuary by Gene Baur, or Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (for the more graphic depiction). Or watch Food Inc. Each one will give you plenty of reasons to reduce or eliminate your meat consumption.