I Love Food

Children's Literature

Entries like I Love Food in the useful "My World" series at Level 2 have two or three declarative sentences per page with enough words to challenge a good first or an average second grade reader. The language sounds childlike and friendly rather than textbook-ish or pedantic. Illustrations feature multicultural faces (here a boy with a pale and blond mother and a brown and dark-haired father), in cartoons and photographs. The boy comments about all the different foods his family prepares and eats, including oatmeal cookies that he and his mother make with his friends, and spicy chili that he and his father make at night. Endmatter includes a review of phrases, the suggestion to make a story out of some of these words and four labeled picture-outtakes, with the invitation to search the previous pages for the match. All and all, a good addition to a classroom reading series, if not an essential one. 2001, Copper Beach, $15.90. Ages 6 to 8. Reviewer: Susan Hepler