Gregory, the Terrible Eater (Reading Rainbow) [Paperback]

Mitchell Sharmat (Author), Jose Aruego (Illustrator), Ariane Dewey (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

A very picky eater, Gregory the goat refuses the usual goat diet staples of shoes and tincans in favor of fruits, vegetables, eggs, and orange juice.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mitchell Sharmat and his wife, the popular children's book author, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, live in Tucson, Arizona, a setting which inspired Mr. Sharmat's first book, Reddy Rattler and Easy Eagle. He says that the idea for this new story was planted while on vacation years ago, when a young goat started nibbling on this son's coat.

Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey have illustrated many books together -- he draws the outlines and designs the pages; she paints the illustrations. Aruego, a native of the Philippines, was a lawyer before becoming an illustrator, and now lives in New York City. Dewey was born in Chicago and also lives in New York City. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (September 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590433504
• ISBN-13: 978-0590433501
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 7.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #439,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite funny to very young kids, December 29, 2005

By 

Anna M. Ligtenberg "AnnaLovesBooks" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Gregory, the Terrible Eater (Hardcover)

ISBN 0590075861 - Gregory, a young goat, likes junk food - all the stuff his parents don't want him to eat. They try everything, taking him to the doctor and even letting him stuff himself with junk food and getting a belly-ache from it. How can they get Gregory to stop eating carrots and eggs and salad and start eating proper, healthy food - like shirts and shoes and tires??

Kids will laugh at the backwards problem in the book and the illustrations, while not superb, ARE very funny. Added bonus, of course, is the message about eating balanced meals, always a hard sell to french fry fans.

- AnnaLovesBooks

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gregory the Terrible Eater, October 29, 2002

By 

Travis (Bay City, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gregory, the Terrible Eater (Reading Rainbow) (Paperback)

Gregory likes normal food; eggs, vegetables, fruit, and fish. Normal food, for a normal kid, right? Wrong! You see Gregory isn't exactly normal well not in his family's eyes. To them, normal food is tin cans, boxes, tires, and mostly garbage. Well that is normal food...for a goat. You see, Gregory is a goat and since he likes eggs, vegetables, and fruits his parents think he is sick. But Gregory just wants to eat what he likes. So since Gregory and his parents haven't had dinner together in a while (and mothers like to have dinner with they're kids) they decide to take him to Doctor Ram. Doctor Ram has treated picky eaters before but not like Gregory. Yet, he comes up with a solution. That is to feed Gregory what he wants but to sneak in a little bit of garbage every meal... It is a good moral to the story I think it might teach kids to try stuff before they decide whether or not the like it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We loved it when we were kids, August 4, 2009

By 

Anna D. Ojanen (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gregory, the Terrible Eater (Reading Rainbow) (Paperback)

If this book were reviewed only by kids, it would always receive 5 stars. As a kid, I adored this book. Kids are amazed by the backwards aspect of this book. The main character is a goat that, to its parents' dismay, eats human foods instead of the usual garbage that goats eat. The fact that the goat's parents push him to eat garbage--exactly what we try to get our human children NOT to eat--seems to make kids laugh hysterically. Kids are very amused by how different what's normal for a goat is from what's normal for a human. Some parents erroneously think this book's purpose is just about teaching kids to eat healthy foods. It is so much more than that. It is about exploring different perspectives.