The Children's Book Podcast · Matthew C. Winner

(R) In Total Admiration with Sara Andrea Fajardo

·37 min·3 clips

Sara Fajardo reveals how her book on a potato scientist is a love letter to Andean children affected by conflict.

A potato becomes the doorway. Matthew Winner opens with the warmth of someone who really does love kids, classrooms, libraries, and children's books that help feelings and identity make sense. His happiness over the 2025 Youth Media Awards feels personal, especially because Sara Andrea Fajardo sits among friends and past guests he is proud of. Then the chat gets delightfully potato-heavy. Sara talks about Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa and the scientist tied to Peru's potato history. She starts at home. Peruvians grow up hearing about potatoes and Peru, and her father made sure the lesson stuck. Whenever anyone ate a potato, he brought up the bigger history until it became family knowledge. The scale still lands with a thud: more than thirty five hundred potato varieties in the Peruvian Andes, and more than five thousand in the world. Sara's route to the book was messier than a neat origin story. She was in Kenya, working in humanitarian aid, when pregnancy led her to move to Peru. In Lima, she contacted the International Potato Center, offered communications help, and began freelancing three days a week. Then the potato got her. She says she could talk about potatoes for days. At the center she met gene bank head Dave Ellis, whose family history had its own brush with children's literature. Through Dave, Sara was nudged toward Alberto, while her quiet wish to write picture books started to feel possible.

As heard by us

A warm conversation about memory, science, and a children's book.

Sarah Andrea Fajardo's conversation with Matthew Winner moves from the glow of the Youth Media Awards into the story behind Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka Con La Papa.

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Why you'd press play

For the listener who wants a warm book talk with science, place, and real delight.

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