Thursday, March 27, 2008

Night of the Veggie Monster

McClements, George. 2008. Night of the Veggie Monster. Bloomsbury.

Something terrible happens every Tuesday night.

Can you guess what it is? If you live with a picky eater, you just might have guessed what drama will follow. (Though you might not have guessed the exact vegetable causing that night's fuss.) Yes, every Tuesday night, the "something terrible" is a serving of vegetables. In this instance, it happens to be peas. (I love peas. Of all the vegetables to cause a fuss, I wouldn't guess english peas to be the culprit. Maybe the parents don't know about melting butter on frozen peas--the only way to go!) Yes, our little drama-king is being "forced" by his "mean" parents to eat three whole peas.


Oh the drama. For with the touch of the pea on his tongue, he turns into a Veggie Monster. "My fingers become all wiggly. . . My toes twist and curl up in my shoes . . ." and soon he's a fully transformed and ready to "smash the chairs. . . [and] tip the table." But then a strange thing happens, he swallows the pea and the world doesn't end. In fact, he admits that it was "all right, really." But the hysteria may return for tomorrow, Wednesday, is broccoli night!

Some of my other picky-eater picture book favorites are:

I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato (Charlie & Lola)

I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato by Lauren Child
and
D.W. the Picky Eater
D.W. The Picky Eater
Little Pea
and Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

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