Nonfiction Monday: Lerner's Food is CATegorical series by Brian P. Cleary

  Fun read-alouds about the food groups, who'd a'thunk it? Each of the books in this series is written in a snappy rhyme, imparting information about food group members, serving sizes and nutrients simply and memorably. Creative teachers (or their students) might even try memorizing the text as a rap, or setting it to music. (Note: teachers may, however, not want to encourage pantomiming, with lines such as : Milk strengthens your teeth, making two healthy rows. At times, when you laugh, it comes out of your nose!)

The illustrations, by Martin Goneau, are very cute and add to the energy of the text. We have to admit, until we looked at the series title, we didn't realize they were all cats, but that doesn't detract from the fun at all. Many of them just looked more like little gremliny creatures to us, biting an annoyed-looking cow on the butt, or sporting a hair net while preparing cheese.

These cute little cat/gremlins offer other salient facts efore and after the main text, including more concrete examples of what an actual serving of that food group is. A great series for any elementary school classroom or library! We give them a

5 out of 5.

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