By Judi Barrett
Illustrator: Ron Barrett
ISBN: 9780689707490
While Grandpa bakes pancakes, one mysteriously ends up on Henry’s head, which leads to a tall-tale bedtime story about the tiny town of Chewandswallow where the sky supplied all the food the inhabitants could possibly want.
But one day the weather took a turn for the worse: the combinations provided were unpleasant and not valid for the occasion, the amount of food provided at a time was too much, sowme of it was overcooked, and the portions kept getting larger and larger. Eventually the people had to abandon Chewandswallow as a matter of survival…
After sailing for a week they ended up at a small coastal town who welcomed them, and the people of Chewandswallow had to learn what it means to cook and purchase food from shops.
The hilarious illustrations in this book not only portray a lot of action, but they have a huge amount of detail, some of which the reader might miss if he/she doesn’t have a close look. It somewhat tells the story “behind-the-scenes”, fitting in perfectly with the “weather-forecast” scenario brought about throughout the story. Much of the story can be derived from the illustrations, and there is a lot of wordplay that keeps readers on their toes.
This is a beautiful classic story that belongs on every child’s bookshelf and will keep kids interested to the end.
I used this book in our Book Club Hour at Thorntree Prep, tying in with their weekly theme about Eating Habits. There are soooo many topics to discuss, but the main point I wanted to bring home was that just as we are to pay attention to the world around us, we should use all our senses to pay attention to our eating habits.
The kids learned about
- Tall Tales
- sanitation (especially in fast food restaurants and public places)
- how to use all your senses to gather data (HOM #10)
- how to use all your senses when eating
- how to eat mindfully (using raisins to demonstrate)
- listening to your body
- leftover food and what you can do with it
- why fruit and vegetables turn brown (enzymatic browning)
- what to do with stale food
- Singapore and their waste liquefaction
- composting
- reducing waste
- eating habits, which not only include WHAT we eat, but also HOW MUCH, and HOW OFTEN, and how we handle food after we’ve had a meal or snack.
I asked the kids if anyone would like to share my “breakfast”, but this time they were not so keen (seeing they don’t “trust” me anymore after the last tasting episode!! – See my post WONDER from two weeks ago!), but I asked them to help me anyway. I took out three containers (one at a time) containing my “food”. The first was half an apple… all nice and brown… They didn’t want to eat that! I tried to convince them that the apple was still okay, but they explained that when an apple looks like mine did, it was no longer fresh! The second bowl contained a slice of bread. First I let them look at it without opening the bowl, and it looked fine, but when I opened it the bread was covered white with mould and added green hairy spots for colour and texture, and it didn’t smell very fresh! They didn’t want to share that either, and they explained that eating food like mine would make me sick! The third contained a hard-boiled egg, which they could view without opening the container, and it seemed in tact… until we opened it… and smelled the horrid smell!! I love the children’s (exaggerated) response to such things!!
We then discussed some food-related similes and metaphors.
It only dawned on me later that my previous food presentations might be the reason why some of the kids wouldn’t put the raisins I brought for our first mindful exercise before reading the story, in their mouths!! Hilarious!
