Module 2
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Reference
Barrett, J. (1978). Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Summary
After fixing breakfast one morning, Grandpa tells a story to his grandchildren about a land where the food rains from the sky everyday. No one has to cook, order food, or grow any food. Everyone eats the same thing. However, one day the sky does not stop raining and too much food floods the town. The residents build rafts from leftover food and sail away to a new land.
What I Think
This hilarious story tells the story about a far away land where the sky rains food every day. No one has to cook anything but one day the sky doesn't stop raining food. The pictures are clever with small details to entertain adults and children. For example, the local restaurant has no cover, no minimum, and it is always open (since there is no roof on the building). The story is funny but takes a dramatic twist when the sky doesn't stop running food and the town becomes flooded with leftovers like giant pancakes as big as a house. The residents use the food to sail away and find a new land where it snows (mashed potatoes?) and the sky is sunny (sunny side-up).
What Others Think
This story is a gratifying, if lightweight, dish
of foolishness. Its aim is for laughs -- and it gets them, through
sight gags for both kids and adults, humor presented in the deadpan
tones of an old-style weather forecast ("Dinner one night consisted of
lamb chops, becoming heavy at times, with occasional ketchup"), and the
sheer preposterousness of events. Don't look for hidden depths here; the
story lives on the surface, and as slapstick it works just fine.
The text rambles at times: Almost half of a class of 6-year-olds was looking out the window as a read-aloud neared its finish, and the librarian was delivering a bright reading at that. "Too long," groaned one child. The illustrations look like something found in a turn-of-the-century magazine, with their hectic line work and wealth of details. It has a bit of science fiction too: Those giant T-bones could easily have come from a spaceship. Lewis, P. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs
Ideas
A cooking exercise with a small group of children would be fun while eating snacks together and talking about what it would be like everyday if their snacks rain from the sky. This book encourages the imagination to wander and imagine food as houses or sailboats. Activities could include building a gingerbread house or making a city out of gumdrops, lollipops, and other small snacks that are fun to eat and build with.
The text rambles at times: Almost half of a class of 6-year-olds was looking out the window as a read-aloud neared its finish, and the librarian was delivering a bright reading at that. "Too long," groaned one child. The illustrations look like something found in a turn-of-the-century magazine, with their hectic line work and wealth of details. It has a bit of science fiction too: Those giant T-bones could easily have come from a spaceship. Lewis, P. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs
Ideas
A cooking exercise with a small group of children would be fun while eating snacks together and talking about what it would be like everyday if their snacks rain from the sky. This book encourages the imagination to wander and imagine food as houses or sailboats. Activities could include building a gingerbread house or making a city out of gumdrops, lollipops, and other small snacks that are fun to eat and build with.
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