RICHMOND—Virginia’s Agriculture in the Classroom program has named Sleep Tight Farm: A Farm Prepares for Winter, a children’s book by Eugenie Doyle, its 2017 Book of the Year.

The book shows readers what happens on a farm throughout the seasons and helps them see how farmers work to provide safe, healthy food all year long. Volunteers will read Sleep Tight Farm in schools across Virginia March 6-10 as part of Virginia AITC’s Agriculture Literacy Week.

“This is our largest volunteer event of the year,” said Tammy Maxey, senior education manager for Virginia AITC. “We are expecting more than 1,000 volunteers to participate and read to children across the commonwealth. This book is wonderful because it features the seasons of the farm and all the jobs of a farmer and a farm family.”

AITC also will make a corresponding educator guide for teachers and volunteers available, along with reading comprehension and art activities to encourage conversations with children about agriculture.

Volunteers read to more than 50,000 children annually during Agriculture Literacy Week. They have included participants in the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Women’s Program and Young Farmers Program, FFA members, employees of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and other state agencies, and members of other agricultural organizations and businesses. Farm Credit of the Virginias and Southern States Cooperative Inc. have been major supporters.

For more information visit AgInTheClass.org.

Media: Contact Maxey at 804-290-1143.