Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - By Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett (Athenem Books for Young Readers, New York 1978). It is a fictional picture book story with a readability lexile of ages 9-12. It would be an enjoyable book for grades K-5.

It is a story within a story. One morning, a grandpa accidentally flips a pancake onto his grandson's head. This reminds him of the town, Chewandswallow. He tells his grandson and granddaughter the story as they go to sleep. In Chewandswallow, instead of rain and snow falling from the sky, they had food falling from the sky. There weren't any supermarkets because there wasn't a need. The people would eat whatever fell from the sky that day. It worked out pretty well, until the weather got out of control. The town was being taken over by all the food that was falling from the sky. They had no other choice than to flee the town. They rode on stale bread over the ocean until they came to a new town where the weather was normal. The children fell asleep and when they awoke, the ground was covered with snow. They hurried through breakfast so they could go sledding. They saw a hill covered with snow and the yellow sun peeking up behind it and imagined that they saw mashed potatoes with a pad of butter.

This is a good story that sparks imagination. The illustrations are a bit like a graphic novel. The story is in black and white until it goes into the town of Chewandswallow. When grandpa starts telling the story, a little bit of yellow shades the children from the town as they go into the new world. At the end of the story, it is black and white again except for the yellow of the sun rising over the snow hill (or mashed potatoes).

Literary Elements:
Foreshadowing - When the sun shines on the children, we know they are going to be taken to an imaginary place.

Mini-lesson:
This book could tie in with a weather project or a creative writing project where we create our own story where something falls from the sky.