Module 1: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Written by Judi Barrett
and Drawn by Ron Barrett

This children's classic finds a young girl and boy listening to their Grandpa tell a bedtime story about a town called Chewandswallow, only it was not so ordinary. Here, food fell from the sky three times a day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Life was excellent for all those who lived in ChewandSwallow until things got bad. The "weather" began to bring bigger and bigger amounts of food until the residents were forced to flee for their own safety, never to return in fear of what happened to their home. The children fell asleep right after the story and woke up to a snowy day, which reminded them of mashed potatoes.

Impact on myself
I can definitely understand why they made a movie in the name of this book! I thoroughly enjoyed the creativity that this classic offered. What a wonderful world where imagination takes the center stage. I found it extremely clever that everything in reality was black and white, while everything fictional was in color. This certainly complemented the story's agenda to take the reader to an imaginary, yet believable world. Maybe this book could be under the genre of Science Fiction. :)

Reviews
In the town of Chewandswallow, the citizens enoy the bounties of the skies, and open-roofed restaurants allow diners to catch their dinner. Unfortunatelv, the weather takes a tnrn lor tlie worse, and there is no choice hut to flee from the fiitling food. The detailed pen-and-ink illustrations begin in black and white, but as the tale progresses, colors join the black line details. A savory story to share over and over again.
Gallagher, G. (2006). Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. School Library Journal, 52(7), 45.

A Saturday pancake breakfast inspires Grandpa to tell a story: in the tiny town of Chewandswallow everything is usually except the weather, which brings food from the sky three times a day. In case readers cannot imagine this situation through words alone, the line and watercolor cartoons complete the pictures: eggs, sunny side up, hand on trees, soda drizzles, a molded jello sets in the west, and so on. The townspeople think this is a fine way to live until undesirable food begins to fall. The Chewandswallow Digest carries the headline “Spaghetti Ties Up Town!” and “Traffic Snarled on Lower Intestine Street.” The people begin to leave for another settlement, where they make temporary houses out of stale bread and live “normal” lives, buying food at the supermarket. This is enough to make readers throw up, but perhaps it is just the taste.
Jenks, C. K., & Gerhardt, L. N. (1978). Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Book Review). School Library Journal, 25(1), 102.

In a Library
I fully recommend this book to elementary students from kindergarten thru third grade. The library could host a contest to elicit excitement about this phenomenal book. Elementary students can submit self-created art for two categories: a typical meal at Chewandswallow or the meals becoming "too much of a good thing." I would suggest one winner per category for each grade level at the school. Another contest to encourage the upper elementary grades to read this book (grades 4-5) could be to write short poems about the theme of "man v. nature" from the book to encourage deeper reading and analysis.

Barrett, J., & Barrett, R. (1978). Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. New York: Atheneum.