Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

When a production team decides to make a movie from a children's book, it's mostly "loosely" based on that book.  Meaning?  They only took the idea of the book so the stories are going to be different.

That's what happened with this next book that you will more than likely recognize the name, but I'm shocked by how many people didn't know that it started out as a book.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (1978)

 Great, GREAT book!  After reading, I can see why it was named one of the top 100 picture books of all time.  It's an original story, original idea......you will have the focus of all your children.

The story tells of a town called Chewandswallow.  All towns have all sorts of weather, but this town's is special.  Instead of rain and snow, they will have food fall from the sky.

The town never goes hungry and each citizen anticipates what new food will fall the next day.  But with each passing season, the food seems to be getting larger, and larger and larger.  So what is a town to do with food that keeps falling that's about 500 times larger than it normally is?

 The illustrations:  SO SPECTACULAR!  Each page is filled with detail.  And the colors.....I swoon!  I love how the illustrator stuck with just a few colors.

AWESOME!

The movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is completely different from this story.  There is no inventor in this book.  In fact, the main character in this story is a grandfather narrating this story to his kids about a town he had heard of.

There are two sequels to this book:  Pickles to Pittsburgh & Planet of the Pies

WHERE TO BUY:

Thriftbooks.com - $3.59 with .99 cent shipping.  If you order more than $10, you get free shipping which makes it cheaper than buying on Amazon

Amazon.com - Used is $0.01 with $3.99 shipping.  This will be the cheapest if you plan to buy this book alone.  Or you can purchase new for about $11.96 for hardcover or $6.00 for paperback.

Click below to purchase:

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by: Judi Barrett $3.59

                                                                  

Popcorn by Frank Asch

This next book wasn't one that I read when I was little but I remember being very much into the Moonbear series.  Before I get to that, I'm going to show you another series that Asch wrote called Baby Bear Series.

Popcorn by Frank Asch (1979)

 Published by Parent's Magazine Press, this is a cute story about Baby Bear and his Halloween party.  As he invites all of his friends to his house, he tells each one to bring their favorite treat.  Little did he know that popcorn was ALL his friends favorite treat.

 Even with all those kernels, they are delighted to pop each and every single one that was brought over.  This brings out a dilemma when the house starts filling, top to bottom, with popcorn.


So you can only imagine what they have to do to get out of this.....I mean, there's only one thing you can do with popcorn.

The illustrations are true to Frank Asch's work.  They are similar to what you see in the Moonbear series.  Pretty basic but yet beautiful in a sense that it shows great color for the decade it was made in.

 And thanks to Lonnie J for allowing me to purchase this book so cheap at the thrift store.  I never erase names or scribble out inscriptions.  I think it's wonderful seeing how the book was used.

Is this book worth it.  Used, definitely and you can get this book pretty cheap.  I've seen this book several times in the thrift store so it's something you can possibly find there.  But if you want to save yourself some time, you can find it at Thriftbooks, which is the cheapest way.  You can click here to purchase:

Popcorn by: Frank Asch $3.59

or you can purchase on Amazon for a bit more:

                                                                  

Just an FYI: If you want to purchase the 1979 edition (there are reprints of the book) it will cost you a bit more, probably around $10 or more.  

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

For all of you who have read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, you will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say "What the crap did I just read and why did I read it?!"  

I do enjoy Eric Carle's illustrations and I'm a huge Caterpillar fan, but I'm still angry at myself for purchasing this book...even for $1.00.  

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (1977)

 Maybe I'm overreacting....and I mean maybe, but let me explain.

As you can see in the picture below, it has the same concept as the caterpillar book, with the growing size of pages...starting with a small 3 inch page to the full book size page.  On each page, the grouchy ladybug finds a new animal or a new bug and asks it the same thing, over and over and over "Want to fight?"  He does this every hour...as you can see by the small clocks in the right corner of each page.  Apparently, this ladybug has major issues as he finds some excuse to not fight each time.  Ugh.

 I won't tell you the ending.  Crap, I can't even spoil a rotten ending, but if you are expecting a dramatic, beautiful ending... it's not there.

By the way, this book did end up on the School Library's Journal of 100 Greatest Children's Picture Books.

Just a little tid bit on Eric Carle:  His artwork is most definitely recognizable by all who know him (even by one book).  He actually hand paints, then cuts the paper into the designs; just as you can see on the ladybug above.  He loves nature which is why most of his stories are about bugs, animals or even things we see in the sky.

If you disagree with my review, you can still purchase this book for a great price on both Amazon and Thriftbooks.  If you are purchasing $10 or more in books, purchase this from Thriftbooks.  Otherwise, purchase it on Amazon for $ .01 plus $3.99 shipping.

The Grouchy Ladybug by: Eric Carle $3.59

There Are Rocks In My Socks Said the Ox to the Fox by Patricia Thomas

Well, before that Fox said fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow, he was telling an ox how to get rocks out of his socks.

I have no idea why this book rang in my memory when I saw it.  I don't know if maybe I read it in Elementary, or saw it on Reading Rainbow, or what...... but the poem in this book is so familiar.

It was the title that really stuck out to me when I saw it in the thrift store.

There Are Rocks in My Socks Said the Ox to the Fox by Patricia Thomas

Such a clever book, really.  I think this is a great classic that would be read over and over by a child of this generation.  It's long enough to keep a 5 year old busy for sure but interesting enough that my 2 year old will actually stay engaged during the entire story.  Most because of the pictures and the fact that I keep saying rocks in my socks.  

The entire book is a poem, where all the lines try to rhyme with the next.  Such a poor big ox has rocks in his socks and can't get them out.  So he puts his trust in the fox who makes the ox try different things to get them out but the ox gets in a worse predicament then the last.  

I also adore the illustrations.  The colors are true to it's age....published back in 1979.  Every other page is color and the other pages are in black and white.  They are just perfect.  The colors do remind you of the 70s.  The pictures are amazing.  I love illustrations where you know that the illustrator actually took their time do draw and not just putting down scribbles.

I have no idea how many of these books they made.  They never made a printing line for it but unfortunately, this book is out of print.  They really do need to bring it back.  I found this gem at Deseret Industries for $1.00 and did find two other copies for .50 quite a while later (one of which I sold on Amazon)

This book does cost a little more than what I would like to pay.  If you want a decent copy, it's going to cost you.  You can get this book for about $18 plus $3.99 shipping for a good used copy or you can buy it like new for about $50
BUUUUTTTT... if you are okay with the library edition, you can purchase this book on Amazon for $1.75 plus $3.99 shipping. And, as I said before, I love library editions, so I think it's worth it.
Thriftbooks is usually sold out but you can add it to your wish list and they will email you when a copy becomes available.

Honestly, this novel used to be only around $8-9 on Amazon just a year ago and now they've doubled in price.  So I would get a copy now because this book only increases in value the more it ages.

Anyone remember this book as a child or heard the poem elsewhere?

Click below to purchase from Amazon. The first one is for the original hardcover book and the second one is if you want to pay much cheaper for library edition.