When I was thinking of traditional literature along these lines that I had never read, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett came to mind. I had seen the movie before, but never actually read the book. I believe that me seeing the movie slightly ruined the book, but isn't that how it always goes... The book was still a really good book that I could possibly use in the classroom later on. The pictures to go with the book are extremely well edited and drawn. Since this was a fan favorite of a lot of friends around me when I asked about which books I should read for this assignment, I know that kids would most likely love the book.

The genre that I would label this book as is a tall tale, or story. I know this did not actually happen in any town in America, nor the less the town in the book called Chewandswallow, which I love that name. This book has a great depiction of different foods, and certain items. I thought it was interesting that the first few pages were black and white and increasingly got more colorful throughout the book. I appreciated this, and made the artwork towards the end seem better than it would have been if those first few pages did not start color-less.

I could see myself reading this book in a classroom in the future for both lesson and for pleasure. I believe this book would be great for younger elementary education students, since it is a hilarious book with good pictures and a sweet story. This could be a fun activity where you could involve coloring your own sky and town with falling food, which again would be great for younger kids. This comes to mind as a book that could be good before a writers workshop to inspire creativity in my kids writings. Overall, the movie spoiled the book which is why it was not 5 stars, but a great book overall.

This book is so fun to read with kids of all ages. The pictures are classic and fun, as is the story. I read this to a group of school and preschool children and they were super engaged. We followed it up with a movie viewing!

Imagine if you lived in a town that only rained food and never rained rain! This story takes weather to a whole new level as readers giggle their way through the climate of one particular town. All is dandy until the townspeople starts to notice weird arrangements of foods storming in. Brussels sprouts with peanut butter? Loads and loads of broccoli? Really? The best part of the book, in my opinion, is looking at the imaginative illustrations. Not only to they make me laugh out loud, but they get me thinking about what this would really look and feel like to live in such a strange town. I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age.

When a breakfast mishap ends with pancake all over Henry's face, Grandpa is inspired to tell the story of the small town of Chewandswallow (located "Across an ocean, over lots of huge bumpy mountains, across three hot deserts, and one smaller ocean"), where all of the residents' food needs were once provided for by the local weather. Whether it was raining soup or snowing mashed potatoes, there was always plenty to eat. But as the weather became more and more extreme - nothing but stinky gorgonzola cheese one day, destructive giant meatballs that damaged homes another - the residents slowly began to realize that they would have to abandon their town...

Originally published in 1978, this imaginative picture-book reminded me a bit of Alan Stamaty's n  Who Needs Donuts?n, another food-themed picture-book created in the 1970s. In fact, Ron Barrett's detailed engraving-style illustrations were very reminiscent of Stamaty's artwork. That association added to my enjoyment of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, although I have to admit that, generally speaking, I may have missed the boat on this one. I never read this book as a child, and although I believe young readers will appreciate its humorous take on weather gone wild, I wasn't quite as impressed as I expected to be, given its status as a perennial picture-book favorite. Still, I'm glad it was one of this month's selections, over in the Picture-Book Club to which I belong, even if it wasn't quite my cup of tea!

Mother nature cooks up a storm, literally, in this madcap story with plenty of silliness to go around.

Ages 4-10

The town of Chewandswallow has some wild weather, bringing meals like burgers, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, and of course meatballs three times a day. Then, things start to go crazy and odd things start happening, like an entire day of just gargonzola cheese and eventually a "tomato tornado" and the poor sanitation department could no longer keep up. This book uses such fun language to describe weather effects, like drizzle, clearings, and downpour. The language is delightful and the illustrations, while not overly colorful, are still detailed and fun. The absurdity and silliness in this story make it a joy to read and the combining of two familiar concepts, food and weather, into one story are sure to stoke the imagination. Kids of this age group will love the fanciful, over the top, giant ideas presented in this book.





About This Book

Here's another wonderfully written and illustrated story by the Barrett team. Receiving a place on the prestigious New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year list, this book skillfully and subtly blends funny storytelling and full-color illustrations with a very real twist about how weather can affect people's environments.

Life in the wonderful town of ChewandSwallow is great: Some of its citizens even say it's downright delicious! Instead of snow, wind, or rain, they get a different kind of weather that falls from the sky three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The only bad part about living in ChewandSwallow is that the people don't get their choice of what they'd like to fall from the sky: it may snow mashed potatoes, or rain juice or soup, or there might even be a storm of hamburgers that takes them by surprise. But no one is too worried about the weather, until it takes a turn for the worse — the portions of food get larger and larger and fall faster and faster, until everyone in the town fears for their lives. They all need to think of a plan, and they need one fast! With teamwork, smarts, and some extra-large bagels, Chewandswallow residents are able to save themselves from the torrential weather. A cheerful approach to gearing up for a science lesson or just for reading aloud, this book makes food and weather fun.

A good review and I agree that it is a good starting point for a weather discussion, especially because of the great terms used in the story.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a children’s book written by Judi Barrett. This book is about a grandpa telling a story to his grandkids before bed. The story their grandpa tells is about a far away town called, Chewandswallow, where people’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner fall from the sky. Everything is good until the weather becomes dangerous. There were tornadoes of tomatoes, and wind storms of salt and pepper. The whole town becomes damaged and destroyed. The people of Chewandswallow have to make a choice to leave or die in their town. They decide to leave and find new land where breakfast, lunch, and dinner was bought from a store.

The main character in “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is the grandpa. The grandpa is the one telling the story to his grandkids. There were no specific names mentioned.

The main setting of the book is in the children’s bedroom where their grandpa tells the story. The specific place and time was never mentioned. I’m assuming the time period is present time.

I think the theme of this book is change. The weather was constantly changing in this book. Every day the sky would rain something different to eat. Then the weather became disastrous and people needed to change their place of living.

I would recommend this book to all young children and parents. This book was a really interesting book. I loved all of the illustrations. The book is pretty easy to understand.

OK, this was really my favorite book for most of my childhood. I would pretend to read it before I could actually read (I had simply memorized it from hearing it so many times) and I remember feeling sooo guilty about all the praise I got for being such a good reader at such an early age. Man alive! Really, I think my love for this book stemmed from the fact that I was a deprived child. Well, I suppose I was never deprived of health food like oatmeal and tofu, but I only got white bread with sweet (or sugary rather) peanut butter @ friends houses. I'm pretty certain I was only friends with some kids for the access to junk food that visits to the their homes allowed me. That being the case, you can imagine what the prospect of a world where such delights fell from the sky and were all mine for the taking would do to me. My plan was to catch extra portions of the foods I liked and hide them under my bed so that I could have whatever food I wanted whenever I wanted it, and nobody could stop me. Yes, while some kids were dreaming of being astronauts and ballerinas I was dreaming of stockpiling junk food under my bed. Sounds about right.

You know you're in a wealthy society when kids read about the sky raining food. Aside from this obnoxious premise, a highly creative, surprising story. Kudos to Barrett for including composting.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a cult classic children’s book by Judi Barrett along with illustrations by Ron Barrett and it is about a magical town called Chewandswallow (chew and swallow, get it?) where food just falls from the sky and provides people with everything they need. But what happens when there is too much food falling from the sky? “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is definitely one unusual and creative book ever created for children!

Judi Barrett has certainly done an excellent job at writing this story as it is full of creativity and excitement! I mean what other book talks about a town where food just falls from the sky and people just eat the food from the sky like nothing? That is what I really loved about this book since I never read a book about food falling from the sky and that proves just how imaginative Judi Barrett made this book from any other children’s book! Ron Barrett’s illustrations are extremely creative and gorgeous, especially when he illustrates the actual family’s life in black and white while the illustrations of the town of Chewandswallow is shown fully in color, which truly brings out the creativity of the make believe town. I also love the illustrations of the different kinds of food that falls from the sky, especially of the images of a dozen hamburgers falling from a storm cloud as it looked quite unusual.

All in all, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a truly brilliant book for children who are food lovers and just loves book about pure imagination! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the book might be too lengthy for smaller children and there are some intense scenes with the falling food covering the town that might scare younger children.

n  Did you watch this movie yet?n




Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was a good children’s book. This book is about a little town called Chewandswallow. In this town, it rains food three times a day. It rains during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some examples of food that fell from the sky are soup, juice, peas, mashed potatoes, hamburgers, pancakes, and hot dogs. The food people did not eat was picked up by the sanitation department. One day, the weather started to get worse. The food started to get bigger and bigger. One morning, there was a storm of pancakes and maple syrup. Another day, there was a tomato tornado. The sanitation department could no longer keep up. Food began to pile up on the streets. The citizens of chewandswallow decided to leave the town, and find a new land.

The characters in this book are Henry, a little girl, and Grandfather. The little girl's name is never mentioned. Henry is the girl's brother. Grandfather is the one telling the story about the town of Chewandswallow.

The setting of this book starts off in grandfather's kitchen. The setting then moves to the made up town of Chewandswallow. The time period of this book takes place during present times.

I would recommend this book to younger children. This book was fun and easy to read. This book had good pictures and a great story line.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a great fantasy book to read aloud to grades 3-5. The story is one that will have all students wondering what happens next. I think it’s great that food was used as weather because it makes you laugh and gives students something different to read and comprehend. The pictures in the book also help the story because they’re very dramatic and you see the food falling from the sky, sometimes it snowed mashed potatoes and green peas and other times it rained soup and juice.

The story starts off with the brother and sister eating pancakes and jumps to nighttime when their grandfather told them a tall tale bedtime story. He introduces the town Chewandswallow and tells them that food falls from the sky. The people could watch the weather report on tv and hear the prediction for the next day. The weather came three times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The townspeople loved carrying around forks. knives, spoons, plates and napkins that way they could catch the food and sometimes save it for leftovers. But then the food stopped coming for breakfast, lunch and dinner and they were left to eat overcooked broccoli, brussel sprouts and peanut butter with mayonnaise. Eventually, the food became too big and destroyed buildings and closed schools so the town of Chewandswallow was abandoned.

After reading this book, this will most definitely be a book that I will read aloud to my students. The creativity that was put into the book is great it’s definitely geared toward the upper elementary level but I would choose to read this book to k-2 graders because they will find humor in the pictures and words. I could probably hold a discussion after reading the book and ask the students what they would do if they lived in a town like Chewandswallow.

A great story - tells not only a fascinating tall tale about the town of Chewandswallow, but also talks about the closeness of extended family. Who doesn't love a story about Grandpa's tall tales? Our oldest loves this tale and we've read it a couple of times.

This story was selected as one of the books for the June 2010 - Culinary Delights reads at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads.