Tomatoes on Trial
The Fruit v. Vegetable Showdown
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? The US Supreme Court takes on the case in this juicy history picture book for kids ages 7 to 10.
In the late 1800s, American produce king John Nix just wanted to sell tomatoes. But when import taxes on popular vegetables impacted his profits, he knew he had to remedy the situation. Nix set out to prove that tomatoes, which have seeds and grow on vines, were clearly fruits. That was the claim Nix argued all the way to the US Supreme Court. With Nix on Team Fruit, and the US government on Team Vegetable, both sides slung definition after definition in an epic, legal food fight. This little-known agriculturally-based story from American history will fascinate young readers and encourage them to take a stand and defend their opinions.
Written by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham
Calkins Creek | ISBN 9781662680533
32 pages | Ages 7-10
Available now!
Praise
2026 Orbis Pictus Recommended Book, National Council of Teachers of English
2026 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts, Children’s Literature Assembly
A Bank Street College of Education 2026 Best Book
2025 EUREKA! Gold Award for children’s nonfiction, California Reading Association
2026 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List, Grades 3-5, Texas Library Association
2026-27 Mountain Laurel Book Award nominee, Grades 3-6, Pennsylvania School Librarians Association
2027-2028 Louisiana Readers’ Choice Award nominee, State Library of Louisiana
★ “Playful text and the ‘blotted line and color wash’ illustrations . . . together make a deliciously fun historical ‘food fight.’ . . . The Supreme Court battle over the definition of a tomato plays out in a humorous children’s picture book which is most certainly guilty of being a remarkable read.” — Shelf Awareness starred review
★ “The book is entertaining, informative, and a wonderful representation of how to make a convincing argument. . . . It’s fabulous! . . . Must buy for all elementary school libraries and public libraries along with middle school libraries that read picture books aloud.” — Youth Services Book Review starred review
“This is a novel piece of nonfiction that is fully entertaining for older elementary students.” —School Library Journal
“Metcalf humorously introduces the legal process, describing the proceedings as a “food fight”—a showdown between lawyers on “team vegetable” (the defendants) and “team fruit” (the plaintiffs). Evidence and rebuttals abound, drolly illustrated by Fotheringham in blotted line and color wash … An entertaining, lucid look at the judicial process.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Chronicling a produce importer’s nineteenth-century lawsuit that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court—and that’s now freshly topical since the case hinged on recently imposed tariffs—Metcalf leverages an amusingly told historical “FOOD FIGHT!” into a model for conducting formal debates of any sort . . . Fotheringham catches the tongue-in-cheek tone of the narrative with whimsical portraits of stiffly posed period contestants with bristly facial hair and cutaway views of produce thrown down as examples and counterexamples. Fruitful reading.”—Booklist
Extras
Mock Trial Toolkit for Classrooms
Plant Parts Logic Puzzle (Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom)
Specialty Crop Self Portrait (Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom)
*****
“What Are Taxes and Tariffs?” | NPR’s “But Why?” podcast for kids
How tomatoes are grown outdoors in California (YouTube)
How tomatoes are grown in greenhouses (YouTube)
KPR interview with Lindsay about the TOMATOES (go to minute 9:10)
