Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

More and more big hit movies are coming out for kids that are based off of great children’s books. I remember as a kid, thinking how cool it was that I had already read the book to a movie that I was about to watch. This is why I like to find the books in our local library to movies that are being advertised and about to hit theaters. It was no different with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. My kids were so excited when I brought the book home and weren’t left disappointed when we were done reading it, over and over again.

This fun story starts out with the family making breakfast together. Grandpa is doing the pancake flipping. A huge pancake lands on Henry’s head. The kids think it’s hilarious and that night at bedtime, Grandpa is reminded of a very different town called Chewandswallow. Everything and everyone there was like anywhere and anyone else that you might run into on a daily basis but the weather was quite strange than anyone has ever seen.

“…it never rained rain and never snowed snow and it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed things like mashed potatoes. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.”

There weren’t such things as grocery stores and fast food restaurants. Everyone in the town of Chewandswallow got their food from whatever the weather brought in for the day. At breakfast time, they even had eggs and it would rain orange juice and toast to go with it. Whatever food they couldn’t eat, they would collect and store it in the fridge in case they got hungry later. There were always plenty of left overs to go around for everyone in town.

One day, the people of Chewandswallow were noticing that the weather was changing, but not like our weather changes. The food was still coming but the portions were getting bigger and bigger. So much bigger, that the town couldn’t keep up with it any more. The meals that were coming down did not taste as good and the combinations weren’t things that anyone would want to eat. One day the weather brought the town’s people pea soup fog and brussel sprouts with peanut butter with mayonnaise. The once happy, little town of Chewandswallow was even flooded by a storm of pancakes followed by a downpour of maple syrup.

With giant food falling from the sky as well as food that they couldn’t eat, the town’s people of Chewandswallow are forced to make a big decision. Will they stay or will they set sail and move on to another town? Homes and buildings are quickly getting destroyed by giant donuts and pancakes and without grocery stores to feed themselves properly; they need to make their decision soon. Will the weather ever change and go back to the way it once was and can they afford to make the decision to stay and try to wait it out?