LITTLE PEA

A crowd-pleaser in the tradition of Mitchell Sharmat’s Gregory, The Terrible Eater (1980), illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, this simply told and illustrated episode features both a decidedly atypical family (all head, no body) facing a familiar dinnertime issue, and a delicious final twist. Little Pea’s generally a happy legume, hanging with friends, rolling down hills and being catapulted off a spoon by Papa Pea—but meals are always fraught, for Little Pea hates candy, which as you know (you didn’t?) is all that peas eat. “If you don’t finish your candy, you can’t have dessert,” says Mama Pea. Negotiating his quota down to five cellophane-wrapped pieces, Little Pea proceeds to choke them down—“Three. Plck. Four. Pleh.”—then jumps for joy at dessert’s arrival—a heaping bowl of spinach. Expect bursts of hilarity from young listeners, picky eaters or no. (Picture book. 3-5)