When I spotted Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on the library shelf, I couldn’t resist bringing it home to read to my five-year old granddaughter, Juliet. I remember reading it to my son when it first came out in 1982. Mark was nine and the story made him laugh.
Juliet’s giggles over the town’s name told me I’d picked a winner. Author Judi Barrett tells of a grandpa spinning a yarn for his grandchildren about the town of ChewandSwallow. The weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and is always food and beverages. The rain is orange juice or soup, the snow is mashed potatoes, and there are hamburger windstorms. After the people are deluged by Gorgonzola snow flurries, toast hurricanes, and pea-soup fog, a giant pancake lands on the school and the town must take drastic measures to survive. The imaginative solution will make you smile.
If you love the book, you’ll be happy to know that Sony Pictures Animation is making a 3-D Imax film with the same title due out in September 2009. Since the book is only 30 pages long, the plot invents a scientist who dreams of ending world hunger by using the town’s resources. Co-writers and co-directors Philip Lord and Chris Miller say that it will be an homage to and parody of disaster movies, such as Twister, Armageddon, Independence Day, and The Day After Tomorrow.
See my review of the movie.
