The Team at KidEngage just loves the little bookworms to read, read and then read some more! Every week we will suggest a book  for the little ones to read in a certain genre and for a particular age group. 

Since, its the Monsoon season we thought what better than to spotlight a delightful book dealing with clouds and rains or is it? Read on for the complete book review.

Book: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Author:Judi Barrett 

Genre:Fiction

Age group:6 years and above

Ah, rains! And the things from the childhood that are associated with rains!! The rain dance, jumping in the puddles, school holiday for ‘rainy day’, and staying indoors with the aroma of food wafting from the kitchen. In fact, if you ask me, the food memories are always high up in the list of things that come to your mind when somebody says ‘rain’. But what if it actually started raining food? Bliss, or maybe not so?

‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’ by Judi Barrett is a tall tale about food that rains from the sky. So, the people in the town of Chewandswallow don’t really cook, instead they wait for the ‘weather’ to come thrice a day – bringing different foods with it. It rains milk and juice, it snows mashed potatoes and there are storms of burgers and sandwiches. People store the leftovers if they would get hungry between meals. The weather forecast tells people what to expect for the food the next day, to help them plan. But one fine day, or on a not-so-fine one, the weather turns for the worse. The kitchen high up starts messing, and nobody wants to eat the kind of food that was raining. There are storms of salt and pepper with tomato tornado. What happens to the people of Chewandswallow? How do they come out of the mess? If you have seen the movie, you’d probably know, but it’s worth reading the book.

The imagination and description of the weather is hilarious, and Barrett has literally cooked up a storm. You can’t help but marvel at the way things have been thought of. The illustrations by Ron Barrett are very impressive, and come with their own quirky details. The boy drinking juice from his umbrella and ‘Ralph’s Roofless Restaurant’ will make you laugh out loud. The text is quite simply brilliant, but with the illustrations, you are actually transported to the town of Chewandsawallow.

The book was first published more than 25 years ago, and it remains popular even today because of the absurdity and silliness, that is so convincing it is almost believable. It will definitely make the kids imagine and think about what impact does the change of weather has on people’s lives. A very fun, imaginative, creative and thoroughly enjoyable book!

What’s your favourite rain or food memory?

This post first appeared on Indian Moms Connect.