5 books for fussy eaters in the class or at home
Have you a fussy eater at home? Or do you just want to encourage your children to eat more fruit and veg? But our children spend their time watching programmes and movies and read books that are often full of treats and sweets, ice cream and doughnuts, pizza and fast food. A lovely activity to do either in the pre-school classroom or at home, is to read stories that present healthy food for kids in a positive, fun way, appealing to even the fussiest of fussy eaters.
These books fall into 2 broad categories, in my humble opinion. The first category is educational books that teach the children about fruits and vegetables, how they grow and where they come from. For example “Are you what you eat” by DK Publishing. The second presents food in a fun way through stories and pictures and these are the ones I like to use in my pre-school workshops.
A simple idea to make these stories more interesting and interactive for the children is to incorporate the real food from the book into your story-telling. This can work in school as well as at home. In Kevin and Kate’s Food Adventure, they talk about carrots so you could simply prepare some carrots and eat them during the course of the story.
Here is a list of 5 books that would be suitable for this kind of fun activity for kids :
Kevin and Kate”s Food Adventures - these lovely Irish books look at growing vegetables with kids, making bread and where milk comes from through the eyes of Kevin and Kate.
Bread and Jam for Frances - talks about a fussy eater who only wants to eat - you guessed it, bread and jam! But then Frances the Badger eventually gets sick of it - the moral of the story being that you can get too much of a good thing! Available on Amazon.
Monsters don’t eat Broccoli - this is a fun, bright, rhyming book about monsters and broccoli - beautifully illustrated. A good one for younger children.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - this classic children’s book can be twinned with lots of activities such as tasting all the foods the caterpillar tries (yes, even the desserts - if you have a fussy eater, getting them to try any new food is an achievement! It can also help normalise “treats”), food art and colouring activities.
I will, not ever, never eat a tomato - this Charlie and Lola book is a firm favourite with The Cool Food School. The story is funny and you can encourage everyone at the end to try “tomato squirters’!
I use some of these books in our preschool workshops to great effect. The kids really enjoy them and they love seeing there learning come to life through the activities and the use of real food. Find out more here.
