Sam the Man & the Rutabaga Plan

By Frances O'Roark Dowell and Amy June Bates

Sam the Man has a new school project. He’s got to “babysit” the—eep!—worst vegetable ever this second hilarious chapter book in a new series from Frances O’Roark Dowell.

Sam the Man is back, and he needs a NEW plan. Sam has already solved a chicken problem, but this time, he’s having rutabaga issues. Rutabaga? Yes, Rutabaga. You see, Sam thought he was quite clever, missing school while his classmates were picking out their vegetable for a two-week science project. But, instead of being able to skip the project, he gets stuck with the vegetable that no one else wanted: the rutabaga!

What even is this thing? It’s dirty and kinda purple, and it does not look like something Sam would ever eat. Sam the Man is not a vegetable man to begin with, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be a rutabaga man. But after drawing a little face on it, he starts to grow fond of the curious veg. Then it dawns on him that vegetables don’t last forever…so he changes his plan: he has to keep this rutabaga happy—and rot-free—for as long as he can. To do that, he’ll have to make the best dirt possible. All he needs is a little help from nature, and, of course, his chickens!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Feb 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781481440714

Frances O'Roark Dowell

Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I’d Like to Be; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; The Second Life of Abigail Walker, which received three starred reviews; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; The Class; How to Build a Story; and most recently, Hazard. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com.

Book preview

Welcome to Your Vegetable

Sam Graham was not a vegetable man.

Two cups a day, Sam, his mom liked to say. That’s all it takes to be healthy.

That’s two cups of important vitamins and minerals, Sam the Man, his dad always added.

It’s two cups of stuff that probably still has dirt on it even though Mom washed it, his sister, Annabelle, usually pointed out.

I’ll eat extra grapes, Sam told his mom whenever she tried to make him eat steamed broccoli or spinach salad. And three bananas a day.

Fruit is good, his mom would say. But you need vegetables, too.

Vegetables, in Sam’s opinion, were overrated. They were either too crunchy or too slimy. Most of them looked weird. Especially broccoli. Sam thought broccoli looked unnatural, like it was trying to be a tree but had forgotten to read the instruction manual.

He didn’t even want to think about asparagus. You could have nightmares about asparagus.

So when his second-grade teacher, Mr. Pell, announced they were going to start a new science unit first thing Monday morning, and that that unit would be all about vegetables, Sam was glad he had an appointment to get his teeth cleaned.

That was another thing about broccoli—it got stuck in your teeth, and you wouldn’t even know it until you looked in the mirror. Sam bet his dentist, Dr. Jenny, hated broccoli as much as he did.

Actually, Sam, broccoli is a good source of calcium, and calcium is good for your teeth and bones, Dr. Jenny told him that Monday morning. She was poking at his gums with a dental pick. If you floss after you eat, you don’t have to worry about broccoli in your teeth, now do you?

Sam guessed not. But what if I forget to floss? he asked. Because sometimes I do, and then there’s all that broccoli stuck in there. It’s gross.

Dr. Jenny raised her eyebrow. Do you floss every day?

Most of the time, Sam said.

Almost all of the time? Dr. Jenny asked.

Almost most of some of the time, Sam said.

Sam left Dr. Jenny’s office with four trial-sized packs of dental floss and a booklet called Flossing: How to Be Your Teeth’s Best Friend!

Sam didn’t know his teeth even had friends.

The point is, you need to floss, his mom said as she signed him in at the front office when they got to school. Your plaque score was a five!

But no cavities! Sam said. He smiled as big as he could, so his mom could see all his perfect teeth.

Walking down the hall to his classroom, Sam felt happy that he had missed science, even if his plaque score was five. He would rather have plaque than learn about vegetables any day.

Good morning, Sam! Mr. Pell greeted him when Sam walked into Room 11. I hope you’re ready to learn about the wonderful world of vegetables. For the next two weeks, you and a very special vegetable are going to get to know each other. You’re going to study your vegetable, write about your vegetable, and teach us a thing or two about your vegetable.

"What do you mean, my vegetable?" Sam asked.

The other kids started to giggle. That’s when Sam noticed that everyone had a vegetable on his or her desk.

Gavin had a carrot.

Will had a head of cabbage.

Rashid had a tiny pumpkin.

Emily had a green bean.

Marja had an eggplant.

There was something on Sam’s desk too, only he didn’t know what it was.

It was the size of a softball.

It was round, but not perfectly round.

Reviews for Sam the Man & the Rutabaga Plan

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Second grader Sam is assigned a rutabaga as his vegetable for a science unit at school. He isn't thrilled with this turn of event until his sister helps him draw a face on his rutabaga. He names the vegetable Rudy and decides he's a friend. The best way to help his friend, Sam determines, is to find some great dirt for Rudy to hang out in and that means Sam must hatch a plan to start a compost bin.This was a very cute read with a simple problem. The everyday aspect of Sam's 'issues' will be relatable to many children -- school assignments, dentist visits, chores, birthday parties, etc. All of the characters in the book are distinct, yet none of them are bad (neither badly written nor terrible human beings). The story is humorous in some ways and reads very quickly, yet hidden within are lessons about being a good person, caring for the environment, etc. The black-and-white illustrations complement the text nicely and also indicate some diversity in the characters. Although this is the second book in a series, it did not seem necessary to read the previous title to understand this one.