Blog Post 3: Fantasy: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

 Summary: A local scientist of the community who has yet to have any major inventions and is often considered a failure comes up with an invention that can make water into food due to a shutdown of the local cannery. In good faith, he creates this invention but something goes wrong and food begins raining from the sky. The idea is good at first but chaos follows the scientist's invention and he must hurry to fix it before it is too late. 

Genre Evaluation: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a fictional story and the first book in a series about crazy food events in the sky. The rambling text may put off some younger readers, but kids and adults will enjoy the zany story and detailed illustrations. The book was adapted for an animated movie, and the movie inspired a video game. (Lewis, 2003)

Motivational Activities: One way to use this book would be to motivate the child to read the book so you can end the lesson by showing the movie and give them something to look forward to while enforcing the importance of reading the text. (Galda, Liang, & Cullinan, 2017)

I believe this book is a great read for the young reader and can allow them to think more creatively while also giving them literature they may enjoy due to the creativity presented by the author and illustrator of the book. 

Sources:

Lewis, P. (2003, August 03). Cloudy with a chance of meatballs - book review. Retrieved April 25, 2021, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs

Galda, L., Liang, L. A., & Cullinan, B. E. (2017). Literature and the child. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.