I was sent the book, Sammy the Centipede Goes to the Market, to review. The book is written by Maria Luchsinger and illustrated by Joe Palmisano. Maria is a teacher with a passion to write educational and engaging books for children. She is writing the Sammy the Centipede book series for children on wellness topics.
Sammy the Centipede Goes to the Market is a book about a centipede who notices he's growing a little large, so he goes to the doctor. The doctor sends him to a dietitian. The dietitian finds out Sammy has been eating sugary foods that aren't good for him. She tells him he can eat sugary foods sometimes, but it's much better to eat healthy foods. Sammy then heads to the market, looking for a rainbow of healthy foods to eat. The following pages go through each color of the rainbow and show lots of great, healthy foods to eat for each color. It also talks about eating berries, beans, nuts, whole grains, and proteins and gives examples of each. Sammy also talks about how important it is to drink water. The end sums it all up and asks you to tell your friends about how to eat a rainbow too. The last pages are recipes of healthy foods to eat, that are easy to make.
My 7 year old son, who just completed first grade, and I read the book together. He was able to read almost all of it himself, and only needed help with a couple of food words that he wasn't sure how to pronounce. It took him about 15 minutes to read. He said he liked the book, especially that it mentioned some of the fruits and vegetables he likes to eat. I had fun sitting with him while he read the book. It was neat to see him laugh at some of the illustrations and to get excited when he saw a fruit or vegetable that he likes to eat. The page about drinking water, made him thirsty, so he got up to get some water. That was cute! About half way through, he realized about the rainbow, and how each color of fruits/vegetables the book mentioned, was following the order of the colors of the rainbow. It was neat to see that "light bulb" moment. I really liked the book too. I liked how it's easy for a child to understand and how it keeps their attention with the colorful illustrations. The book gets the point across about eating healthy, in an easy way to remember, by eating foods from different colors of the rainbow. I also like the recipes at the end because they're easy and quick to prepare.
If you would like to get Sammy the Centipede Goes to the Market for your own child, grandchild, classroom, etc. you can go here to find out more about it. If you want to find out more about the author, Maria Luchsinger, and her other Sammy the Centipede books, you can go here.Labels: Book reviews
