Picture books are known for bringing the mundane world to life. Kids grow up in a cartoon world, and giving objects a face and a voice attracts them to young readers. This is especially true of food, and no food is classically a greater enemy to children than vegetables. But children’s author Mommy Moo Moo has managed to make vegetables a little more exciting with her board book, Vegetable Chatter, which I have reviewed below.
Vegetable Chatter plot summary
Vegetable Chatter introduces young readers to various vegetables by giving them individual personalities and interactions in a vegetable garden. The peas are sweet, the squash are posh, and the carrots are clever. Most of the story is told in the pictures rather than the text. And by the end, readers will begin to recognize the names of the vegetables that end up on their dinner plates.
The writing
Mommy Moo Moo’s books are based on concepts rather than story which is acceptable and even encouraged in picture books. Vegetable Chatter is ideal for any new reader who is learning how to sit and listen to a book.
A mere 14 pages long, each page contains just a handful of words and phrases, making a quick read. It also doesn’t have to be read in order. So readers can flip to their favorite page. And with repetition, they will begin to identify the vegetable on each page with its given name along with the personality that Mommy Moo Moo has assigned it.
At the same time, there’s no ploy to get reader to eat the vegetables. Besides the sweet potato and pumpkin pies, the vegetables appear raw or in jars, such as the pickled beets. They don’t get eaten at the end. The only attempt to consume one of the veggies is a rabbit who trespasses into the garden but is outsmarted by the clever carrots.
Humanizing inanimate objects is a very common childhood activity. This book encourages that creativity and imagination as much as it does recognizing the color and shape of each vegetable. It stays light and entertaining rather than preachy or blatantly educational.
The illustrations
Illustrator Tom Edwards really brings the vegetables to life with his animated faces, bright colors, and individual postures. Each vegetable has its own look from the ravishing radishes with their long eyelashes and full lips to the corn on the cob with his pointy nose and elongated mouth.
However, there is a continuity to Edwards’ style. The vegetables all sport long, thin arms and utilize stems, leaves, and vines to create individual hairstyles. They are also drawn with dimension and shading that keeps them from looking too flat and cartoony.
Edwards also incorporates props and clothing, such as skateboards and tennis shoes for the potatoes and musical instruments for the beets’ rock band. He fills the white space of the background with the vegetables and creates different terrain within the garden but shows in the final pages that the vegetables all inhabit the same space, just different parts of it.
I also liked spotting little details like the dandelions, rocks, clover, and moss that pepper the ground. He also creates hilly areas and valleys that become set pieces such as a runway for the strutting slice of pumpkin pie or a stump serving as a balcony for the bored cantaloupe who would rather pamper herself than listen to the corn on the cob’s recitations to her.
My recommendation.
I read a copy of Vegetable Chatter to my nine-month-old nephew. He loved it as much as he loved Mommy Moo Moo’s previous picture book, Loblolly, Loblolly, You’re So Tall. The sturdy board book can withstand his tendency to chew on everything he comes in contact with, and he loves the bright colors of the vegetables, even if he can’t really understand and repeat back what I have read to him.
But he has been eating vegetables in their pureed form for several months now. So, I like being able to show him what they look like in their most raw state.
As he gets older, this book will show him that vegetables are grown in the ground, harvested, and though they don’t have a face, appendages, or get up and move around, they look and taste differently from each other. Seeing them in cartoon form may inspire him to want to see the real versions, try new ones, and even come up with his own versions of personalities for his favorite vegetables.
Buy it!
You can buy a copy of Vegetable Chatter by Mommy Moo Moo here! (not an affiliate link)
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I haven’t heard of this before. It is always interesting to see what others are reading and any recommendations. Thank you for sharing a well written review.