Product Description

How about a nice dish of Colonial Squirrel Pie with a side of milkweed shoots? If that doesn't grab you, you might think about trying some Garbage Stew, just like they made in medieval England. But if you're feeling a little tired and need a boost, your best bet is roasted spiders. They've got three times the protein of cooked beef. (Is your mouth watering yet?)

Illustrated by the wildly-creative Eric Brace, It's Disgusting -- and We Ate It! is a fascinating look at culinary creations from all over the world!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23966 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"With enough information for several sittings, this compendiumlives up to its title's rich promise," said PW. Ages 5-10.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6ASolheim appeals to the gross-out side of kids in this exploration of edible grub (larvae and otherwise) around the world, past and present, and it's more laughs than a barrel of monkey brains (the one delicacy he missed). Divided into three sections, the book begins with "People Eat the Wildest Things," a look at some of the less common foods eaten today, such as frog legs, earthworms, snakes, insects, flowers, and seaweed. "From Mammoth Meatballs to Squirrel Stew" considers strange fare from the past, such as a menu from a medieval royal feast in England (14 oxen and 50 swans, among other things), the rat stew eaten by sailors, and the robins popular in Colonial America. "If You Think That's Sick, Look in Your Fridge" takes a look at how many common edibles, such as milk, cheese, honey, and mushrooms, are grown or produced. Each double-page spread includes basic facts and lots of interesting trivia written in a wacky, off-the-wall style that children will love. There are also poems-amusing, tongue-in-cheek odes to unusual delicacies (a haiku celebrates sushi). Brace's cockeyed, whimsical illustrations, done with colored pencils and acrylic paints, are delightful. The pages are filled with colorful characters who make wry observations about the text. Fact-packed fun from beginning to end.AJoyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4^-6. Brace's zany illustrations, somewhat reminiscent of Lane Smith's, add a blast of color to this picture book of food trivia, which focuses on some of humankind's weird grub choices. Solheim's "menu" is a mishmash--from seaweed, which shows up in products ranging from ice cream to salad dressing, to horse blood and earthworm soup, which were enjoyed by various cultures in times gone by. The layout is busy and sometimes disjointed, with lists, cartoons, straight text, a selection of recipes, and poems (which tend to get lost in the mix). The facts, however, are fascinating and fun, and Solheim has included a good list of additional readings as well as a selected bibliography. Stephanie Zvirin

Customer Reviews

Just Eat It!
An excellent little book with sensational illustrations. This book explores some of the foods from around the world which different cultures enjoy, but which may seem disgusting to us. Everything thing eaten is not in here but there is a good selection. What was eaten throughout history around the world is also included.

My favourite section is part three - Strange Stories from your own Kitchen which explains what cows eat and how that food gets turned into the milk which we drink. There is also similar information on how bees make honey.

There's also a few recipes and 19 poems as well. I am not really into poems so they didn't do much for me but if you are into poetry then this may well be a bonus for you. The illustrations in this book are sensational though, and worth the price alone.

Totally Gross! And That's COOL!
I've got to meet this author! He's got a wonderful sense of humor and is able to capture the "just gross enough" aspect of human nature. If you have a child who loves to pretend he's eating real worms in front of his little sister just to gross her out, you NEED this book. I love it, cover to cover.

and you thought chocolate covered ants were bad!!
Anyone for some soup made with birds' nests?? How about "1,000 year old eggs" aged in mud?? Live maggots?? I've got it, seaweed!! What?! You want to eat HAMBURGER?!? HOW REVOLTING!! :)

Food cuisine from around the world and the strange things people have found to be delicacies is the topic of this fun book. While most American children wouldn't eat cooked spiders for a million dollars, they may be interested to find that spiders, grubs and other insects are considered not only cruncy delights in other countries, but pound-per-pound they have more nutritional value than most snack foods we eat in the states!

"It's Disgusting" is a well researched, well illustrated book that I would file in the 'expand your horizions' section. We easily forget that not everyone is like us or likes the same things we do. Hindis would be revolted, shocked and offended if we ate hamburger in front of them. Asian cultures find soup made from birds' nests a delicy (the nest itself is largely made of the birds spit) as well as sun dried jellyfish. Closer to home, at one point in history in the US turkey was once considered a food that would make you stupid and tomatoes were once considered poisionous. The passenger pigeons of yesteryear who used to blacken the sky by the millions were made extinct in part because of people's desire to eat them.

Meanwhile, today many food thickeners are made from seaweed or the hooves of animals (carageenan and gelatin, respectively), and some colorings are made from the carapaces (exoskeletons) of insects. However, no one seems to be worrying about horse hooves and bug juice in their yoghurt these days...

The book is written well so that even intermediate readers will be able to make their way through and become enligtened about the foods other cultures fancy. The authors strive to keep any bias out of their writing and simply state the facts: while WE may find this food gross, other people find it a delicacy and vice-versa--there's stuff WE regularly eat that other cultures would quickly push aside. Peppered with fun poems and bright illustrations (including some fun bar charts of the nutritional value of various foods, like bugs), this book may get a chorus of "ewwww!!"'s, but it will also expand the horizons of it's readers!

Now, pass the chocolate covered ants...