Fajardo, Sara Andrea. Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru’s Famed Scientist and Potato Expert. Juana Martinez-Neal, Illus. Roaring Brook, 03/2025. [40]pp. Nonfiction. Trade $19.99. 978-1-2508-3861-2. GRADES Preschool–2. OUTSTANDING.
Potatoes, if you didn’t know, originated high in the Andes Mountains. Today, potatoes are a staple food for over a billion people worldwide, and with climate change and a population that will reach nine billion by 2050, scientists like Alberto Salas are needed more than ever. Specializing in the potato plants of his native Peru, Alberto Salas searches for the ever-elusive Papa de Zorro—potato crop wild relatives—in order to study and figure out how to make potatoes heartier in every way possible. The plants are tiny, and Alberto has made a game of finding them, playing “hide and seek,” or “paka paka” in Spanish and Quechua. Author Fajardo uses lyrical, descriptive language, the Quechua words Alberto learned growing up in the Andes sprinkled throughout the story. The playful, flowing, and beautifully artistic illustrations by Martinez-Neal accentuate the color variety found in potatoes. The back matter and author notes are exceptional, fleshing out the scope and importance of this particular story to the world at large. An excellent biography about a man on a quest for sustainable potatoes. Winner of the Sibert Informational Book Award.
Pauline Harris—San Francisco Public Library