Janey Junkfood’s Fresh Adventure
by Barbara Storper, MS, RD; Illustrated by Frances E. Schneid
Published by FoodPlay Productions
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Harold N. Walters
Twelve-year-old Janey Juarez wants to be an internationally famous juggler. She has a problem though. She frequently drops the juggling balls. Unless she overcomes her clumsiness, Janey likely won’t even qualify for the Junior National Juggling Team.
Janey believes an unusual routine might help her win a position on the team. She hopes juggling five balls, simultaneously balancing a loaf of French bread on her nose all while riding a unicycle, will impress the judges. This ambitious idea fails. Janey cannot even manage to balance a hotdog bun on her nose.
Tobe Fit, Janey’s bosom buddy and the narrator of Janey Junkfood’s Fresh Adventure, sees Janey’s predicament and decides to help her. When she grows up Tobe wants to be a detective, so she investigates to uncover the root of Janey’s trouble.
Almost immediately, Tobe spies the villain–a daily diet of junkfood. Tobe establishes a regime of healthy food to alter the quality of Janey’s diet.
Based on FoodPlay’s Emmy Award-winning TV special of the same name, Fresh Adventure is a child-friendly, interactive book. It is chock-a-block with ingredients that kids will devour. Each page is a tossed salad of colourful pictures, drawings, notes and memos, and Tobe Fit’s piquant narration are hand-printed on separate sheets of loose-leaf binder paper.
Fresh Adventure explain to children the harmful effects of a diet obese with junk food and offers practical methods for transforming an unhealthy diet into a healthy one.
Two pages of Tickets to Fresh Adventures duplicate ones Tobe uses as tools in her scheme to gradually modify Janey’s diet. Each ticket—from Yogurt Parfait, through Broccoli Forest, to Veggie Confetti—is essentially a simple recipe for a nutritious meal.
Kids of all ages will lap up the delightful story, devour the animated drawings and feast on the buffet of amusing techniques Tobe utilizes to make her case for a healthy diet.
As a matter of fact, this kid intends to return to page 17 for another serving of laughs from the hilarious cartoon figure in the drawing called Anatomy of a Junkfood Diet.
Armchair Interviews says: Nice way to give kids the message about eating better.
Web site: http://www.FoodPlay.com