How Are You Peeling?

Title: How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods
Author: Freymann, Saxton and Elffers, Joost
Photographer: Nimkin/Parrinello
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999
Genre: Picture Book
Awards: The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book
Age Range: k-1

Summary: This book is all about MOODS! The title, How Are You Peeling? plays on the words "feel" and "peel." As soon as the reader opens the page, colorful pictures of expressive fruit show their faces. As the book continues, readers are encouraged to question, discover, and come to a better understanding about their feelings. The book has beautiful photographs of fruit that has been carved to show expressions of different feelings. At the end of the book, the authors have a short paragraph to explain their process of creating the book.

Response: What isn't there to LOVE about this book! The words are so simple, but the photographs are anything but! The beautiful, artistic sculptures perfectly capture each of the feelings that Freymann and Elffers mention to the reader. This book is one of my favorite books to read when I am feeling upset because it puts me in the best mood. I have never seen another book that uses carved fruit as the pictures. This idea is so innovative and so creative that I am curious to find other books that use this same technique.

Teaching Ideas: This would be a good book to use for the first day of class. As the teacher read it and simultaneously talked about these feelings with the class, students could begin to identify their emotions with words. This book would allow students to engage in open dialog about different emotions they have encountered. In turn, students would begin to feel more comfortable with each other.

If you like this book, check out these similarly constructed ones:
Food For Thought
Baby Food
Dog Food
Fast Food

Eat Up! ;)
--Jeana