Fast Food (Hardcover)

~ Joost Elffers (Author), (Author) "Your feet can walk and run and skip..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-Once again, the creative team that brought readers such delicious titles as How Are You Peeling? (1999) and Food for Thought (2005, both Scholastic), is at it again, this time sculpting fruits and vegetables to depict things that go. An engaging mushroom figure (think Pillsbury Dough boy) leads the way as he runs and skips, skis and skates, pedals and glides under his own power. From there, the pace picks up, highlighting mechanical, long-distance vehicles, such as cars, trucks, trains, ocean liners, and helicopters. Each ingenious construction maintains the integrity of its various elements (the train consists of zucchini passenger cars on a celery-stalk track) photographed against solid backgrounds. As any librarian knows, books on transportation always move, and this one, featuring an okra airplane and a ginger kayaker paddling a fava-bean boat, may move faster than most.-Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* PreS-Gr. 2. Like Freymann and Elffers' other books, such as How Are You Peeling? (1999) and Food for Thought (2005), this picture book takes a theme (here, transportation) and illustrates it with exceptionally clear color photos of ephemeral, sometimes whimsical sculptures created from fruits and vegetables. As quietly witty as its title, the book is narrated by a little mushroom man who suggests different ways of getting about: on foot or by skateboard, wheelchair, bicycle, skis, car, bus, truck, train, sailboat, submarine, airplane, blimp, or rocket. The playful text gallops along smoothly in rhymed couplets, while the illustrations work their inimitable charm. Little mushroom, radish, and gingerroot people drive around in cars made from a variety of foods: peppers, a cucumber, a sweet potato, and (wait for it . . .) a lemon. Because the pear-based helicopter (runners made of string beans, blades of peapods, and piloted by a radish head with a confident smile) is photographed slightly from below and suspended above the tops of leafy parsley stalks, it appears to hover above trees. Clean book design and vivid color reproduction ensure that the art takes center stage here. This handsome book is both a uniquely entertaining addition to preschool and primary-grade units on transportation and an irresistible invitation for children to play creatively with their food. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 043911019X
• ISBN-13: 978-0439110198
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #123,346 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars come on and play with your food, June 18, 2006

By	Melissa Sack (georgia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

You know that you are not supose to play with your food right? Well now is the time to break that rule! The creators of this book sure have! They have created figures and things that go out of all sorts of fruits and vegetables! Paired up with rhyming text this book is sure to be a hit for kids of all ages!


We love the entire series of these food books. The photography is so well done and the idea of turning food objects into animals and objects is so clever.

Parents of toddlers will enjoy reading this aloud. Not too many words are on each page.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly creative, January 18, 2007

By	Carolyn Jean "CJ" (Trabuco Canyon, CA) - See all my reviews

Fast Food and ALL the books by Joost Elffers and Saxton Freymann are incredibly creative! The vivid colors draw the kids in and the imagination they have with food captures their attention! Fast Food makes my kids want to eat their vegetables! As does "Mr. Pompos' Nose" and "The Lonely Sea Horse". They have others too! Not to mention, as an adult, you'll learn what some vegetables and fruits look like that you may have never seen "live" before. It's a great education on "foodology" for the family.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever Cuts, August 30, 2007

By	H. M. Panagos "reader" (Southeastern Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Here is another wonderful little book of fruit and vegetable art that can't fail to enchant adults and children alike. This one is all about vehicles: trains, buses, cars, trucks, aircraft, boats, all created from common vegetables, piloted and ridden by mushroom-, radish-, scallion-, and banana-people, among others. Each page is good for a chuckle and a second look, don't miss cauliflower Santa in a pear sleigh pulled by a ginger reindeer! This is a child's picture book to be sure, for children of all ages. As in all the other books in this series, the illustrations are very creative. Much of the fun is identifying the foods depicted in each scene. Look carefully or you might miss the parsley tree on the edge of the hot balloon page. Children can't help but get caught up in the game. The text is short and snappy, simple rhymes and easy rhythm for reading. It's a book suitable for group reading or quiet time with your toddler on your lap.