Product Description

Did you know that Carbohydrates supply most of the energy your body uses? You should drink at least 5 glasses of water every day? The mineral iron is found in foods cooked in iron pans? 3 slices of bread contain 200 calories?

Jam-packed with fascinating facts such as the ones above, Good Enough to Eat is uniquely designed to satisfy kids' love of food, and their curiosity about how their bodies work.

This book offers all of the basics found in an adult nutrition guide in a format designed specifically for kids. Lizzy Rockwell has filled Good Enough to Eat with funny speech bubbles, detailed illustrations, and an engaging cast of children who munch their way across the pages while explaining everything from why your body needs protein to the food pyramid and how to use it. You'll even find hands-on experiments that test food for fat and reveal the differences between starch and sweet carbohydrates, and recipes using the nutritious foods that children need in their daily diet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361307 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 40 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Rockwell (illustrator of My Spring Robin; On Show and Tell Day) serves up a simple but often bland introduction to nutrition. Watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations offer close-up views of a variety of foods and introduce a cast of smiling, wide-eyed kids whose comments (presented in balloons) supplement the facts in the text. The compositions are cheerful and sometimes playful, as when a boy dressed in a skeleton costume delivers a message about the value of calcium in building and "repairing" bones. The palette, unfortunately, is muted or shadowy, so that the pictured foods never look very appetizing. The author discusses such basics as the importance of eating a balanced diet, the process of digestion, sources of various vitamins and minerals, etc. She concludes with a handful of nutritious, carefully written, kid-friendly recipes. The only other hands-on aspect of the volume is a vaguely outlined experiment "to find out where fat is hiding," which entails rubbing foods (no specific varieties are suggested) on a piece of paper and examining it for grease stains the following day. Given the book's targeted audience, Rockwell has perhaps gone too far in streamlining her information; those above the beginning-reader level may well find the tone of both the art and the text (with the exception of the recipes) somewhat babyish. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-This picture book about healthy eating begins at the beginning: food is necessary for one's well-being and it tastes good, too. Six categories of nutrients are introduced: carbohydrates, protein, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals. Digestion is described, as is the Food Guide Pyramid. Five recipes are given at the end. The large, square format invites readers in, beginning with a bright watercolor scene of a hungry family: the dog is howling, the baby is crying in her high chair, the cranky boy is bringing in the bread, and the mother and father are doing what they can to get everyone fed. This double-page spread says much more than the four lines of descriptive text. Every bit of information is illustrated with a large or small picture, sometimes accompanied by labels or dialogue balloons. Pictures of healthy food are everywhere, prepared by and eaten with great enjoyment by a variety of people. There's an amazing amount of information packed into this inviting, clear, and valuable book.
Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 5^-9. Which foods contain protein, and why does my body need it? What about B complex vitamins? Why must I drink a lot of water? The bright, cheerful pictures focus on preschoolers preparing and eating foods and using them to grow, breathe, move, stay warm, and fight germs. Everyone will appreciate the clear, detailed presentation of facts about the various nutrients and the foods they are in. There's a food guide pyramid, a page of healthy fun recipes for adults and kids to cook together, and playful pages that show kids dressed up as astronauts, skeletons, clowns, and pirates demonstrating the importance of vitamins and minerals: the foods that contain them and how the body uses them. The endpapers illustrate the main food groups, with individual dishes and facts about how many servings you need a day of each group, from fruits and dairy products to fats, oils, and sweets. The audience for this book will be adult caregivers as much as the children they feed, and if older kids can get past the preschool cast, this could be a valuable classroom tool for teaching about health and nutrition. Hazel Rochman

Customer Reviews

Superb introduction to healthy eating for preschoolers
I checked this book out of the library for my five-year old, and she loved it. She got really excited about this book and seemed to love how the pictures illustrated the text. There was this one particular set of pictures that referred to PROTEIN. The first picture showed a girl on the farm doing chores and talking about how protein helps you be stronger. In the background, there were the meat sources of protein: a cow, a lamb, a chicken, etc. On the next page, a couple of kids were next to a beanstalk, talking about other sources of protein--like beans. The pictures were very colorful and eye-pleasing and I loved how the author used word bubbles from the kids in the book to explain--in simple language and with everyday examples, what each nutritional component does for the body. She let the characters teach. In one part of the book, they put on costumes to show which vitamins do what! This book made it really easy for me to discuss the importance of eating right to my child, and--after six months--she still remembers things like, "eggs have protein in them and protein makes you strong!" [her words] There are simple recipes in the back, which we didn't test, but I look forward to trying them out once we get the book again. The only things about this book I didn't like was the lack of scientific activities, but I'm looking into other titles to supplement (like, Janice VanCleave), and a lack of "discussion starters". Otherwise, I think this book is a wonderful way to start your own discussions on healthy eating. One of the great things about smaller children is their need for repetition, so I'll get the chance to come up with a new discussion every time we read this book.

Wonderful presentation enlightens children about nutrition
This is an excellent reference book on nutrition for parentsand their children with accurate, well presented information.Children can begin to appreciate the importance of nutrition and the role it plays in maintaining their bodily function and performance.