Module 2 : Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

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SUMMARY

This fantastic book is a quirky story written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. The story takes place in a town called Chewandswallow. In this little town, when it rains, it rains food! The townspeople have no reason to go grocery shopping or to go out to eat for dinner because every day, food falls from the sky. Eventually the "storms" get so bad, the food is so gigantic that it now is creating catastrophes for the citizens. By the end of the book, the people of Chewandswallow must now get their food the normal way, and grocery shop and cook as usual.

APA REFERENCE

Barrett, J., & Barrett, R. (1988). Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. New York: Atheneum.

IMPRESSIONS

With dated illustrations, and dull colors, this book depicts the 1970's era. Simple lines and cross-hatch shading make the drawings a tad rough, yet allow the reader to embrace the story. Every human loves to eat, and what better way to obtain food than have it fall freely from the sky. Although most would think this would be a great way to avoid the grocery store and cooking, the gluttony and laziness of the townspeople starts to wreak havoc on the community. This is a fun book for young children to fantasize about such a fictitious event.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
[Review of the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, by Judy Barrett]. Kirkus Review retrieved on 10/30/14 from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/judi-barrett-8/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs/.

A flying pancake at breakfast triggers Grandpa's bedtime story set in the far-off land of Chewanswallow, where the food comes out of the sky and ""whatever the weather served, that was what they ate."" Most of the book consists of nothing more than elaborations on this conceit, with running menu information decked out in weather report terminology, but Judi Barrett's examples are nutty enough so that kids won't tire of the gag--even though Ron Barrett's flippy pop cartoons are too literal to enlarge it. The plot thickens with the maple syrup, and at last the portions grow so large that the people are being bombarded and buried by food--and so they all sail off on peanut-butter sandwiches to a land where food is purchased at the supermarket. A dubious improvement perhaps, but Grandpa's imaginings are very close to a little kid's funny bone--which everyone knows is located somewhere along the intestinal tract.

LIBRARY USES
This would be fun to create a class book. Each student could write a short essay and begin the title with "Cloudy with a Chance of ________". Once the books is complete, it could be bound for a library read aloud, and also for student checkouts.