The Seven Silly Eaters

by Mary Ann Hoberman, Marla Frazee (Illustrator)

Overview

A funny picture book about solving—finally!—a growing family's picky-eater problem!

Peter wants only milk, Lucy won’t settle for anything but homemade lemonade, and Jack is stuck on applesauce...

Each new addition to the household brings a new demand for a special meal. What’s a mother to do?

"A highly comic rhyming romp that surprisingly (and nicely) twists into a birthday story.” —School Library Journal

"Hoberman's riotous tale is spun like a Seussian fable." —New York Times Book Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780152024406
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/01/2000
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	43,594
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.12(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Mary Ann Hoberman has published more than twenty books for children, including the American Book Award winner A House is a House for Me, illustrated by Betty  Fraser. She and her husband live in Greenwich, CT.

MARLA FRAZEE has illustrated many acclaimed picture books, some of which she also wrote. Her picture book A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever was named a Caldecott Honor Book. She is also the author and illustrator of Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages; Santa Claus, the World's Number One Toy Expert; Roller Coaster; and Hush, Little Baby. She is the illustrator of Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers, The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman, Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild by Mem Fox, and more. Marla Frazee lives in Pasadena, California. Visit her website at www.marlafrazee.com.  

Preface

Peter wants only milk, Lucy won't settle for anything except pink lemonade, and Jack is stuck on applesauce. Each new addition to the Peters household brings a new demand for a special dish. What's a mother to do? Even though Mrs. Peters picks, peels, strains, scrapes, poaches, fries, and kneads, the requests for special foods keep coming. But it isn't until Mrs. Peters' birthday arrives that a present from her children solves the problem and surprises everyone.

Cheerfully ignoring all notions of good nutrition, Mary Ann Hoberman has created a happy, affectionate celebration of family chaos and cooperation for picky eaters of any age. Marla Frazee's lively depiction of the hungry Peters brood and their hardworking parents will have even the fussiest readers laughing.

Editorial Reviews

Hoberman (The Cozy Book, 1995, etc.) renders the story of finicky eaters with an understatement that both children and those who cook for them will appreciate.

Persnickety eaters—they are Mrs. Peters's cross to bear, and she has seven of them. One wants warm (not hot, not cold) milk, another lemonade (not from a can, but homemade), or applesauce, or strained oatmeal, hot bread, eggs poached and fried (for the twins). Although she loves her children, her efforts to keep them fed drive her batty—"Creamy oatmeal, pots of it! Homemade bread and lots of it! Peeling apples by the peck, Mrs. Peters was a wreck." On her birthday, the kids do the cooking, and from their respective preferences emerges a delicious cake. Hoberman gives this tale a droll rhyme, singsongy and fresh as paint, while Frazee's pen-and-ink illustrations, with a touch of Hilary Knight's chaos to them, mold the story with warmth and mayhem: The Peterses live in a Walden-like setting that grows with the family and mellows over the years. Point taken—the antidote for picky eaters (and for the happy trials of large families) is a good sense of humor.

Kirkus Reviews