7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Trouble with Cauliflower is Adorable and Hilarious, March 29, 2006
This review is from: The Trouble with Cauliflower (Hardcover)
People are naturally superstitious. It's common for baseball players to refuse to wash their socks during a winning streak or for executives to wear a lucky tie during important presentations.
The protagonist of "The Trouble with Cauliflower," a cuddly koala named Mortimer, believes that eating cauliflower will cause him to have bad luck the next day. His best friend, Sadie, an ostrich (or emu?), tries to prove him wrong. Sadie and Mortimer are sweet and charming, and I hope there will be more books about them in the future. Their friendship reminded me of George and Martha, two of my favorite children's book characters of all time.
In "The Trouble with Cauliflower," Jane Sutton takes the complex concept of self-fulfilling prophesy and makes it easy for children to understand. Unlike many children's books, "The Trouble with Cauliflower" is subtle and does not feel preachy. Readers will laugh out loud at several points, especially the book's hilarious ending.
Sutton's entertaining story is bolstered by Jim Harris's vibrant illustrations. Every picture is gorgeous and filled with fun details. Harris does an incredible job showing the characters' emotions. In addition to koala Mortimer and emu Sadie, readers will be delighted by the giraffes, hippos, and elephant. Children will also love searching for the mouse that's hidden on every page.
"The Trouble with Cauliflower" is destined to become a favorite of adults and children alike.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You don't make friends with salad, you don't make friends with salad..., April 28, 2006
This review is from: The Trouble with Cauliflower (Hardcover)
There are hundreds of thousands of wonderful picture books for children out in the world. Unfortunately, of these books only a handful read aloud well to small children. It doesn't matter how much you love a book or how vibrantly you articulate it for the little 'uns. The fact of the matter remains that only those authors with the keenest of ears will be able to pen a title that sounds just as fine to a class of 20 screaming Kindergartners as it does a single well-behaved six-year-old. Now I consider myself a readaloud-picture-book-seeking-machine. I sniff them out in all their variegated forms, trying to locate the best and brightest of the lot every year. My library also receives a great many brand new picture book titles. Some are mere days old while others haven't even hit bookstore shelves yet. Recently we received a shipment from Dial Books For Young Readers. I was delighted because I'd been anticipating a couple stories that I knew would be included. In the box, however, there were other books that I'd never even heard of. And one of these was, "The Trouble With Cauliflower". I viewed the galley with a skeptical eye. I flipped its pages. I sat down and devoured its text. And the conclusion I reached startled me. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of those rare and wonderful readalouds I constantly search for without cease. A fine funny book and a rather charming read.
Mortimer the koala and Sadie the ostrich (or possibly emu) are friends. One night, Sadie invites Mortimer over for dinner to partake of a delicious stew she's been making. At first our koala hero refuses to dine, for he knows that there is cauliflower in the bowl and, "whenever I eat cauliflower, I have bad luck the next day". Sadie wisely pooh-poohs this idea, and before long Mortimer's polished off four helpings of the stuff. Unfortunately, he pays for it the next day. He stubs his toe, and spills orange juice, and fails a very important driver's test. That night he has Sadie over for dinner at his place and she brings a lovely vegetable surprise casserole. The next day after that, Mortimer has nothing but luck. It's only when Sadie confesses that the "surprise" in the casserole was cauliflower that Mortimer admits that she was right (in a roundabout manner). On the way home, Sadie suggests a nip of lemonade. "Oh, no, I can't... Every time I drink lemonade, it starts to rain".
There's something about Sutton's language in this book that lends itself to reading aloud. Partly it's the placement and emotional resonance of the pictures. Partly, it's how well Sutton puts her words together. This isn't something I'll be able to describe. Suffice it to say, Sutton has her writing chops firmly in place. Meanwhile, illustrator Jim Harris (best known at this point in time for the Cajun tale, "Petite Rouge") is all about the details. And I, a sucker for any illustrator who cares enough to render a rather believable animal-run DMV, approve of his work heartily. Harris is clever enough to spot his pics with little literary shout-outs as well. When Mortimer comes crashing through the DMV wall (having apparently first waylaid some poor soul's washing line) you can see a rather startled mole reading, "Wind In the Willows". I also loved the eye chart in the back with the permanently fuzzy letters on it. It's interesting to note that though the book is steeped in nostalgia, its steeped in several different kinds of nostalgia. There's the country-style homes of Sadie and Mortimer, melded together with a kind of soft 1950s pizza shop. There's a lot of wooden furniture and old-fashioned radios and animals wearing hats. Depending on your tolerance for this kind of thing, you may love the book or abhor it. I, for one, adored it.
To nitpick, I wasn't as pleased with the last line as I might have been. For me, the lemonade superstition should've been like the cauliflower. That is to say, something Mortimer could control. Had he said, "Every time I drink lemonade I feel grouchy" or "Every time I drink lemonade people are mean to me", that would've worked better in the context of the story. Better yet, Sadie could have said something like that! Make her the unwise one for a change. Ah well. It's a small problem in an otherwise very nice book.
Should you find yourself in need of picky eater books, books containing Australian animals, or books that read aloud well and contain objects that begin with the letter "C", "The Trouble With Cauliflower" has your number. Beautiful to look at and lovely to say, it's a class act through and through. A droll little discovery.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No trouble with this cauliflower, March 30, 2006
This review is from: The Trouble with Cauliflower (Hardcover)
"There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so" Hamlet
Mortimer the Koala has convinced himself that cauliflower is the harbinger of bad luck. He steadfastly refuses to eat the accursed vegetable for fear that all sorts of calamity will ensue if he does. Then one day he is having dinner at his Ostrich friend Sadie's house where she is serving a delicious stew. The stew contains cauliflower, of course, and, despite his superstitious reservations, Mortimer's hunger wins out. As he predicted, calamity does ensue the following day and in many hilarious ways. Mortimer places the blame squarely on the albino-broccoli. When Sadie later serves him "vegetable surprise" casserole and no ill events occur it is easy (for adults at least) to guess what surprise vegetable the casserole contained. Regardless of the lack of surprise, as those same adults read and re-read this story to their children (and believe me kids are going to demand re-readings) they can ponder the philosophical questions of self-fulfilling prophecies and how much of an effect attitude has on the course of human events. Their young ones meanwhile will simply soak in the playfully sweet (but never saccharine) prose by Sutton and the lively illustrations by Harris. And you know what? As an adult I enjoyed those as well. This is far-above-average fare that entertains, but never panders, and talks to but never down to its audience.
And you never know, it may get kids to eat their vegetables.
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