Day 211: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is one of those childhood classics that somehow has not yet made it into our home library (or on to this blog) until now.  I brought it home from the library once when my son was 2 or 3, but at the time, it was too long to sufficiently hold his interest.  Not anymore!  My mom recently gave us the copy that had been my brothers' when they were little, and my son (now 5) has requested it at bedtime every night for almost a week now.

If you are unfamiliar with this fantastical story, it's about the unique, faraway town of Chewandswallow.  It's a town like any other, for the most part, with lovely stores along its main street, houses with gardens and trees, a school.  "The only thing that was really different about Chewandswallow was its weather.  It came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Everything that everyone ate came from the sky."  Imagine a world where you could wake up one morning and, "after a brief shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs moved in, followed by pieces of toast.  Butter and jelly sprinkled down for the toast.  And most of the time it rained milk afterwards."  Hot dogs blown in from the northwest, mustard clouds, Jell-O sunsets.  Wouldn't that just be amazing?

Life went along happily in Chewandswallow, until one day, the weather took a turn for the worse.  A giant pancake fell on the school and couldn't be removed, and the maple syrup that rained down nearly flooded the town.  Other days saw only gorgonzola cheese, or overcooked broccoli, or pea soup fog so thick that no one could see anything.  Eventually, things got so bad that everyone had to abandon Chewandswallow and leave it behind forever.

It's a story that is as delightful as it is clever, with illustrations that are bound to captivate you read after read after read.  I personally find the coloring of the illustrations a little strange (maybe it's just our version), but the detail of the drawings is simply fantastic and we find something new and creative every time we read it.  One of my favorite pictures is that of the boat made of stale bread and peanut butter, with pizza and swiss cheese for sails and a bacon flag.  Ralph's Roofless Restaurant is pretty clever, too.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this story, though, is that it is presented in the form of a bedtime story told by a grandfather to his grandchildren at bedtime; or rather, a child's recollection of a story her grandfather told her at bedtime.  My favorite lines in the whole book are "Henry and I were awake until the very end of Grandpa's story.  I remember his goodnight kiss." This line always reminds me of the incredible significance of simple moments like these.  Moments that, in and of themselves, might not seem like anything particularly noteworthy or unique, but that can linger in our children's memories long after we've forgotten them.  Moments that I remind myself to take time to savor and appreciate while they are happening.  It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:  "Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."  I guess we should never underestimate the wonderful power of stories and goodnight kisses.

Day 133: How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world

If you’ve been following this blog for a while now, you know how much I love books that teach me (and my kids) new things.  Combine that with a book that takes us around the world, includes a map, and uses some fabulous new vocabulary words, and it’s pretty much guaranteed I will love it.  My sister-in-law gave us this book for Christmas (thanks, Kate!), and it was love at first read.  Not only does it have all of the amazing qualities mentioned above, but it's also about one of my children's other favorite things: baking!  How To Make an Apple Pie and see the world is a wonderful book for preschoolers, but I will definitely read it to my seventh grade geography students some day, too.  It starts out with a girl reading a list of apple pie’s ingredients:  apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, butter, egg.  “Making an apple pie is really very easy.  First, get all the ingredients at the market.  Mix them well, bake, and serve.  Unless, of course, the market is closed.”  Then what?  Where do all of these yummy ingredients actually come from, anyway?  This fantastic story takes us on a journey to collect them all from various places around the world:  semolina wheat from Italy, a chicken and egg from France, cinnamon from the bark of Sri Lanka’s kurundu trees, milk from an English cow (“you’ll know she’s an English cow from her good manners and charming accent”), sea water and sugar cane from Jamaica, and apples from Vermont.  Once we’ve collected all the ingredients, we can easily make our pie, right?  Sure!  All we have to do now is “mill the wheat into flour, grind the kurundu bark into cinnamon, evaporate the sea water from the salt, boil the sugar cane, persuade the chicken to lay an egg, milk the cow, churn the milk into butter, slice the apples, mix the ingredients and bake the pie!”  Isn’t it wonderful?!  I love the way this story gets children thinking about where our food actually comes from, and how much we depend on other countries and people of the world every day.  We love tracing our route along the map in the book and remembering where we went to get what. Along the way, author Marjorie Price also teaches us some great new words, such as superb, acquaintance, elegant, and coax.  Be sure to check out the recipe at the end of the book, too.  Perhaps your little ones will even want to make their own pies after reading this great book!  While you may not be able to take them around the world to get the ingredients, talk about where different foods come from the next time you go to the store.  Take a look at the different items around your house that you use every day, too, while you’re at it.  Where were they made?  What countries do you depend on each day?  If your child loves baking, exploring, learning, dreaming, traveling, or even just reading a great new book, this one is bound to be a hit.

Day 79: Eating the Alphabet

My son loves playing the game where you take a letter of the alphabet and think of as many things as you can that begin with that letter.  Sometimes we name only animals (his favorite "Q" animal that he's learned about is the quokka), but other times it can be just about anything.  He likes to play while we're in the car, eating lunch, doing puzzles, or just playing.  Out of nowhere he'll suddenly say, "Let's start with R.  Rabbit, rhinocerous, race, rocket..." I love hearing what he comes up with as play, alternating back and forth.  Another great book I found at our last library book sale was Lois Ehlert's Eating the Alphabet.  It's a simple alphabet book, with the names and colorful watercolor collage illustrations of fruits and vegetables for each letter of the alphabet (shown with both lower and uppercase letters.)  My son loves reading it, and it has given him some great new words to add to his vocabulary and use during our words game:  kumquat, currant, endive, huckleberry, persimmon, quince, rutabega, ugli fruit.  I also have learned some new things from reading it, as well, thanks to the fabulous glossary at the back that gives some fun and interesting facts about each food.  Who knew "xigua" is the chinese name for watermelon?  If your child loves learning fun, new words, this book is bound to be a hit.

Day 72: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Of all of Eric Carle's fabulous titles, this one might be the most famous of all.  What child doesn't absolutely adore the story of the hungry little caterpillar who eats his way through the days of the week?  This story has just about everything you could ask for in a children's book.  It's educational (we learn about the metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to butterfly, the days of the week, and even that eating too much junk food gives you a stomach ache!), is fun, tactile and interactive (with little holes chewed through each piece of food, just perfect for little fingers), and is full of simple, bold, colorful illustrations.  My son can't wait to turn each page to see what the caterpillar eats the next day, anxiously awaiting Saturday and its glorious selection of treats.  My daughter loves staring at the bright pictures and is always sticking her fingers into the little holes.  I also love that the book is conducive to so many other creative activities, from food and science to arts and crafts.  We had to make a caterpillar fruit plate for dessert tonight to ward off the requests for "chocolate cake, an ice cream cone, a lollipop, a slice of salami, and a cupcake!" Carle is a master of engaging little minds and readers of all ages, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar is definitely one of our favorites.  Oh, and if you do not yet own the book and are interesting in buying it, we highly recommend the lap board book edition.  In my opinion, it is much better than the smaller board book version and makes reading a fantastic book even more fun.  Enjoy!