‘Farm Boots’ Author Discusses Ag Children’s Book

Farm life needs boots in every season.

Each pair we wear is for a reason.

Farm Boots is a charming children’s book that explores life on the farm through the footwear used for different chores. The inspiration for this rhyming picture book came from an unlikely place — a mudroom.

“Looking at all the different kinds of boots my husband has for different types of work just on our farm alone, I thought that would be a really fun story,” recalled the book’s author, Lisl Detlefsen.

Lisl didn’t know much about agriculture until she met her husband, a fifth-generation cranberry farmer in Wisconsin. From the moment she saw her first cranberry harvest, she was hooked.

“I always liken seeing harvest to Dorothy stepping into Oz — where all of a sudden the whole world was in color because it just was so overwhelmingly beautiful,” she said. “It’s such an interesting crop. The way it's harvested is very interesting. The equipment they use is fascinating.”

Lisl always wanted to be a children’s book author, and she decided to combine her passions for storytelling and farming by writing about agriculture for children. Her first book, Time for Cranberries, was inspired by life on her family’s farm, and Lisl hoped it would introduce more children to this world.

“I grew up completely outside of agriculture, but now agriculture is so important to my life because I live on a working family farm,” she said. “People really should know about where their food comes from, how their food is grown, who's growing their food, the work that goes into it, what farmers do in a given day.”

Farm Boots tells the story of agriculture by showcasing the various boots used on different farms throughout the year — boots for everything from planting to harvest, dairy farms to animal shows. The delightful illustrations by Renée Kurilla perfectly complement Lisl’s verse.

“We looked at how many different farms we could cover in this book during the editorial process,” Lisl said. “Renée did a lot of work to research not just the boots, but the different types of farm settings. Her work is just so friendly and cheerful and colorful.”

Lisl said her initial goal for writing about agriculture was to introduce children to the world of farming, but she’s also found many children in farm families excited to see their lives mirrored in her stories. Although she wrote it for a younger audience, she also finds plenty to discuss with older children.

“It opens the door to talk about agriculture, and you can use it in the classroom with older grades to talk about poetry,” she said. “You can talk about life on a farm, about the seasons — that's how the book is organized, by season — so there's a lot in there even though it initially seems very simple.”

Lisl has a new picture book about bread coming out in 2024. The story is about a family bread recipe passed down from Lisl’s great grandmother. Lisl was inspired to write this story during the COVID-19 pandemic while she, like many others, made her own bread at home.”

“Bread really connects people in good times and bad,” she said. “There's something about eating warm, fresh bread that really is very comforting. In its way, that's a love letter to all the work farmers do to make that bread possible.”

Learn more about Lisl and her books on her website.