I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato

A. Title: I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato
B. Author: Lauren Child
C. Illustrator: Lauren Child
D. Publisher: Orchard Books/Candlewick Press
E. Genre: Picture Book
F. Reading Level: k-2

G. Summary: The illustrations are done in mixed media. Charlie gets asked by his parents to feed his little sister, Lola, dinner. Lola happens to be an extremely picky eater and doesn't like anything, especially what was for dinner that evening. To help get Lola to eat the food, Charlie made up stories about foods from different planets, from under the sea, or from the clouds on the highest mountains of Fuji. In the end, Lola asks to try the tomatoes without Charlie having to make up a story!

H. Response: The illustrations in this book are very creative, bright, colorful, and fun. I love the way Lauren Child incorporated multiple types of media into the illustrations: drawings, real-life pictures, digital imagery. The illustrations are double page spreads with the words mostly written into the pictures. I think the creative, funny tales Charlie made up made a perfect story to list and teach young students about foods. I also loved how Lola trusted her older brother and wanted to be like him. Not only does this book make it easy for young children to associate food words with the matching pictures, the stories about each food are very entertaining.

I. Teaching Ideas: I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato is a great book to teach young students about different types of foods and the food pyramid. There are many creative ways to incorporate this book into a lesson. One way would be to read the book as a class, name all of the foods in the book, and in groups, color and cut out pictures of the foods to place in a giant food pyramid. One lesson plan I found online included parental involvement with tasting new foods from the book! There is also a suggestion for having a "name the food day" in the classroom that allows the students to taste the different foods and put the correct name with them. These are just two ideas, but there are many other creative lesson plans that could be derived out of I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato.