Potato Lover's Affirmation
Written: Jul 23 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's short, has pictures, and is about potatoes.
Cons: Uneven photo quality. That creepy picture.
The Bottom Line: Here's a so so book about a monumental topic. Even its shortcomings can't diminish the wonder and grandeur of the potato.
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| nagels's Full Review: Jennifer Julius - I Like Potatoes |
I’m not the best at judging ages, but I’d say he’s a boy of nine or ten. Wearing a hit me over the head, gaudy Hawaiian shirt, buttoned to the neck and predominantly extreme orange, he reminds me of a young Pee Wee Herman with unnaturally red lips and long eyelashes. Grasping the potato between his thumb and two fingers, he holds it close to his face, studying it intently with just the hint of a Mona Lisa smile apparent.
While pondering the perfectly formed, palatable potato before him, the youngster poses a question to the reader that can only be answered in the affirmative.
“I like potatoes.
Do you like potatoes?”
I respond enthusiastically to the porcelain child, “Yes, Yes, Yes, of course I do. Doesn’t everybody?” But, of course, he can’t hear me.
As we delve deeper into this tease of a page-turner, we see our main character eating a baked potato, a plateful of fries, a hearty bowl of mashed potatoes, a dish heaped full of potato salad. He’s always seated, always with a portion of the potato held close to his impossibly colorful lips, never actually eating but always about to. Perhaps the sight of someone actually indulging, chewing or swallowing spuds would be too much to ask of the helpless reader, a tantalized observer of the boy’s potato fervor.
Then there are those relentless, maddening, persistent questions: “ Do you like potatoes when they are baked? Do you like potatoes when they are fried? Do you like potatoes when they are mashed? Do you like potatoes when they are cold?”
“Of course, you silly boy,” I want to shout. “The tater is greater than any other dish, be it fried, steamed, boiled or baked. You are not the only one with a rapturous fondness for this fabulous, chameleonic vegetable. But thank you for asking just the same.”
This is ”I Like Potatoes” a 24 page potato primer by Jennifer Julius, one in a series of Good Food books from Welcome Books. Others in the collection for those aged 4-8 are: I Like Berries, I Like Cereal, I Like Juice, I Like Pasta, and I like Peanuts. Apparently there is some interest in foods other than potatoes.
Random Thoughts and Observations
I shared the book with several 8-year-olds who seemed to like this tater tale, especially its topic, brevity and full-page pictures on every odd numbered page. The pages and photos provoked good discussion about food tastes, editorial choices, and that one picture. More about that picture further on.
The author uses repetition of words and format effectively, and her vocabulary choices are mostly appropriate for the target age. In the back of the book the rudimentary glossary with phonetic spellings seems silly and quaint at the same time, sort of like a training glossary. I don’t think definitions of words like picnic, ketchup, and applesauce are really necessary or helpful here.
Example: ketchup (kech-up) a sauce made from tomatoes.
The vocabulary respellings are of little use and differ little from the original words.
The photographs for the most part are as bland as plain noodles and washed out. None of the foods jump off the page with realism or incite drooling. The baked potato with cheese looks like it’s been sitting out for several days. A dish of French fries looks limp and greasy next to a dish filled with enough ketchup for a family. The “smooth and creamy mashed potatoes” look brown and lumpy. The fried potato cakes look like yellow coconut fritters.
Our main character looks stiff and ceramic with all the personality of a plastic egg. Maybe the looks of the unappetizing potatoes before him have influenced his mood and dampened his enthusiasm. He looks posed and unnatural in the photos.
What appears to be a man’s hand lies palm up on the ground, motionless and partially covered by roots and dirt. There’s a nasty cut on the top segment of the hand’s middle finger, and most of his wrist is blanketed with soil. Three potatoes rest on the palm and fingers leaving only his fingertips visible. The photo didn’t trigger a response from the younger students to whom I showed it while the adults and teenagers who viewed page 7 found the depiction creepy, unnerving and not in harmony with the rest of the book. Maybe watching too many horror movies can affect one’s perceptions.
Other than its subject matter, nothing in this 24-sentence book is outstanding or noteworthy. Despite its quirks I feel compelled to give a minimum of three stars and a lukewarm recommendation to any book whose author uses POTATO more frequently than any other word in her book. Dig in!
Reading level – 4-8
Language – English
Dimensions – 6.9 x 6 x.1 inches
Words - 135
Recommended:
Yes
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