Pumpkins

"Pumpkins" follows the life cycle of a pumpkin from 'seed to sprout to flower to fruit to holiday symbol' (Booklist). It does so with very simple words and wonderfully composed and photographed images of pumpkins in all stages of growth. The words and pictures also show the variety of pumpkins, from tiny, palm-sized to gigantic, prize-winning, monster pumpkins, as well as different colors and shapes. The photos of the pumpkins and the farms and harvesters really evoke the cool, crispness of the fall harvest season that takes us from summer into winter. This is a great book that will get you and your kids thinking about how food grows, who grows it, and where it comes from.

FOOD - FALLING FROM THE SKY!!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Written by Judi Barrett

llustrated by Ron Barrett

1978, 32 pages

June 29, 1999

By David Wiesner

1992, 32 pages

Here are a couple of our favorite books that fall in the category of 'fantastic food falling from the sky'. Well, maybe that's not such a broad category, but these two books are great for sparking the imagination by taking an ordinary, everyday thing like food, and putting it in an entirely new, and silly, context. And if vegetables are a sore subject in your household, here's a way to have a positive and fun conversation about them. Maybe if broccoli drifted in through the windows, my daughter would be more interested in eating it!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is the story of the tiny, far away town of Chewandswallow, where food falls from the sky three times a day, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Such a great, silly concept will have your kids giggling and imagining what would it really be like to go outside with their plate and catch three, well-balanced meals each day drifting down from above. But, then the weather takes a turn for the worse, and the food combinations get odder and the food itself becomes larger and larger, until one day the town must be abandoned. The people sail across the ocean on giant slices of stale bread (which they then use for temporary shelter), and learn to get their food at...supermarkets! One of the best parts of this book are the illustrations - pen and ink drawings full of little details you'll discover on multiple readings.

June 29, 1999, is another book about food falling from the sky (who would've thought there would be more than one?), in this case, it's just vegetables. But they are beautiful, giant vegetables that float gently down to earth one day (June 29, 1999). "Cucumbers circle Kalamazoo. Lima beans loom over Levittown. Artichokes advance on Anchorage. Parsnips pass by Providence." A young girl believes the falling produce is the result of her science experiment, but there is a much more interesting cause behind the "airborne vegetal event". This is another beautifully illustrated book by David Wiesner, who won the 2007 Caldecott medal for his book "Flotsam".

FOOD PLAY

By Joost Elffers & Saxton Freyman
2006
320 pages

This is a compact collection of over 300 images from a decade spent playing with food (and then photographing the results). If you haven't already seen some of the authors' books, you've probably stumbled across their images at some point over the last ten years. The author/artists simple carvings of fruits and vegetables create some of the funniest, most beautiful, and thought-provoking images you'll see. This book, which has no words, will generate many laughs and conversations between you and your children as you look at the pictures. It's great for exploring one's own feelings, and learning how to read the feelings of other 'people'. I found it very interesting to hear what my three-year-old daughter thought the different produce were thinking and doing - she will often come up with little stories describing the relationships between one piece of fruit and another.

DOREEN CRONIN CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Author Doreen Cronin is a very funny children's author who seems to understand that she is writing for two audiences - the child listening and the adult reading. And she is adept at writing stories for all ages of children, from babies to grade schoolers. If you haven't yet discovered any of her books, pick any one of them and you can't go wrong - they're all excellent, fun reads that you and your kids will enjoy. Below are a few that my daughter and I highly recommend!

"Bounce" and "Wiggle" are a great pair of picture books for any age - babies to preschoolers. Cronin's trademark humor is here in simple rhymes that follow the same wiggling, bouncing dog in each book.

"If you bounce into a puddle, it's best to bounce in boots.

If you must bounce in the market, it's best not to bounce in fruits."

And from the "Wiggle" book:

"Do you wake up with a wiggle? Do you wiggle out of bed?

If you wiggle with your breakfast, it might wind up on your head."

The illustrations are a colorful combination of pen and ink, watercolor and collage. You'll have fun bouncing and wiggling with your kids while reading this book!

"Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type", "Giggle, Giggle, Quack", and "Dooby, Dooby, Moo" are three of Cronin's books that all take place on the farm of Farmer Brown, who seems to have some very advanced farm animals living in his barn. The first story begins when the cows find a typewriter and type out a note to Farmer Brown demanding electric blankets to keep them warm in the cold, drafty barn. When he refuses, they go on strike - no blankets, no milk. Typewritten notes are exchanged until a deal is negotiated that all involved are happy with. But Farmer Brown's troubles are just beginning, because now the ducks have gotten their hands (wings?) on that typewriter and send a new note to Farmer Brown:

"Dear Farmer Brown, The pond is quite boring.

We'd like a diving board. Sincerely, The Ducks"

"Diary of a Worm", "Diary of a Spider", and "Diary of a Fly", are another series of books by Cronin that are again very amusing in a variety of ways depending on how old you are. In the first, a young worm chronicles his life at home, school, and play. You will get a worm's-eye view of the best and worst things about being a young worm - never getting in trouble for tracking mud into the house, never having to take a bath are great, but having no arms and watching out for people digging for bait can be difficult. There are also many entries that human kids will relate to:

"My older sister thinks she's so pretty. I told her that no matter how much time she spends looking in the mirror, her face will always look just like her rear end. Spider thought that was really funny. Mom did not."

The illustrations bring you right down into the world of worms and are full of funny details that you will discover on multiple readings. Spider and Fly, friends of Worms, share their lives in the other two books.

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AMBASSADOR ANNOUNCED

The U.S. Library of Congress and the Children's Book Council has selected John Scieszka as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The position has been created to "help promote literacy and the joy of reading in young people."

"Scieszka will travel the nation speaking to parents, teachers, and the media, as well as attend events at book fairs, publishing houses, libraries and nonprofit centers. But his main job as ambassador will be to engage the children..."

Scieszka, the author of "The Stinky Cheese Man", and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs", says, "What I'm going to try and do is bring back that real excitement about reading to counteract all this testing stuff that is going on because I see that everywhere and it's just sucking the life out of reading," he added. "Kids see books as an assignment."

Read more here: http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-01-03-voa73.cfm

Sounds like a great idea to me!