Tag Archives: Judi Barrett
Bedtime Stories: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett.
There are a surprising number of picture books that have been adapted into movies, with varying levels of success. We’ve seen a few Dr. Seuss books: The Lorax; Cat in the Hat; How the Grinch Stole Christmas. There is the unlikely adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. And we got not one, but two Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movies. (Full disclosure: I’ve only seen the second one.) And from what I saw of it, it wasn’t that bad. But nothing will touch the original book of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs with its sparingly colored pen-and-ink images of massive doughnuts and orange juice rain.
I got this book from my grandfather when I was little and it instantly became a favorite. The story revolves around a wacky grandfather (not too unlike my own) telling the kids the story of the land of Chewandswallow where food falls from the sky. What a wonderful place it was! Spaghetti rains down for dinner, doughnuts roll in in the morning. But something goes awry. First the food is gross, overcooked, and bad. Then it becomes downright dangerous. Pancakes the size of a city block! Scary!
The pictures are forever emblazoned on my brain. Especially the pale faced kids eating their weight in cream cheese and jelly sandwiches.
This is a fun book and just writing the review makes me eager to go reread it to my son. It makes me a little hungry too.
Bedtime Stories: Delicious, Mouthwatering Weather
Post by Mark T. Locker
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett; illustrated by Ronald Barrett.
My Grandpa bought me this book when I was a kid and I was fascinated with it on so many levels. I brought it home from the library for my own kid this week. I’m not sure if he will obsess over it the way I did, but he definitely loves it. Apparently a movie of this book was released a few years ago…I’m just going to pretend that never happened and keep my memories preserved in the print version.
If you haven’t read this before, I’ll give you a quick synopsis. One morning Grandpa comes over and makes pancakes for the kids. A mishap leads to a pancake landing on a child’s head. Inspired by the incident he tells them a story that night about the land of Chewandswallow. In that land, nobody has to cook their own food. Instead, the food comes in in the weather systems. It might rain orange juice in the morning, mashed potato clouds might roll in for lunch and a roast beef front may come through in the evening. All is well and good until the weather starts to go haywire. Overcooked broccoli three days in a row. Giant doughnuts rolling down Main Street. Apparently that’s a problem but I don’t see why.
It’s a fun, creative and unusual book from the author/illustrator couple who also brought us Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing (which is also great fun). Now go, read, and dream of hamburgers raining down.
