Fruit Bowl

After a mother enlists her child’s help in putting newly purchased vegetables and fruits away, the young speaker, whose presence appears only as a word balloon, greets the fruits as old friends: “Oh, Pear. I’m glad you’re back in season.” The kid makes sure each one gets safely into the bowl, but why is Tomato trying to crash the party? “You belong in the fridge with the other vegetables,” says the child. Savvy Tomato has the facts on his side: he started out as a seed, he explains, as did many of his comrades who are usually classified as vegetables and now demand their rightful place in the blue fruit bowl, too. In his first foray as writer and illustrator, Hoffmann (illustrator of You Can Read) offers a fun, brain-teasing food literacy lesson that’s a cornucopia of produce and wordplay. His naive-styled fruits—they look like generously proportioned cut-outs with stick arms and legs—have vivid personalities, and their gouache colors are positively juicy. Ages 3–7. [em]Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (June) [/em]