Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Book)

Barrett, J. (1978). Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. New York, NY: Antheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0-689-30647-4

Interest Level: Ages 4 to 8
Genre: Picture Book
Subjects/Themes: Weather, Food, Bedtime Stories, Granparents, Imagination

Plot: Inspired by a pancake landing on one of the children's head, a grandfather tells his two grandchildren a bedtime story about the town of Chewandswallow.  The town of Chewandswallow was like most other towns except that instead that they didn't grow or buy food.  Instead they got their food three times a day from the sky.  Instead of normal weather, it would rain hamburgers or soup, it would snow mashed potatoes, or the wind would blow in hot dogs.  Everything was fine until the weather started getting out of control blowing in more food then the people could eat.  The town was slowly getting destroyed by all the food so the people decided to leave by constructing boats out of stale bread and peanut butter.  The finally sailed far enough to a place where food didn't fall from the sky and instead people grew and stored it.  There they stayed, never returning the Chewandswallow.

Personal Thoughts: A cute story that just makes you want to look out your window and use your imagination.  The idea of food falling from the sky is one that children can use to help pass the days of bad weather when they can't go outside.  There are some sweet scenes between the children and their grandpa during the story.  A great addition to a preschool storytime with a food or imagination theme.  The movie adaptation only takes a few concepts from the book such as the food being part of the weather and making bread boats.  In the movie, a scientist creates a machine to control the weather and cause food to fall.  The machine eventually goes out of control and starts destroying the town.

Awards/Recognition:
Delaware Diamonds: Primary (Grades K-2) (1991)
Georgia Children's Book Award: Picture Storybook Award (1984)
Golden Sower Awards (Nebraska): Grades K-3 (1983)

Other Books by Author: Animals should definitely not act like people (1980); Animals should definitely not wear clothing (1970); I Know Two Who Said Moo: A Counting and Rhyming Book(2000); Which Witch Is Which? (2001); Never Take a Shark to the Dentist and Other Things Not To Do (2008); The Marshmallow Incident (2009);