"Three long stems of orange carrots call out your name as you reach out for a crunch. Come on, buddy! Crunch crunch crunch!"
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Eat Healthy, My Sweetie by Tien Huang Trafford Publishing
book review by J.A.Garcia
Eat Healthy, My Sweetie, written and illustrated by Silly Billy the Lobster author Tien Huang, is a book designed to encourage young readers to consider their dietary choices as they count to ten along the way. Throughout the book, the narrator implores "sweetie" to eat healthful foods and goes on to list their various health benefits in often technical detail. An apple every morning will keep "blood arteries healthy" while "the fiber in flaxseed will help you digest your food." Conversely, the narrator also explains the possible consequences for not making nutritional choices. Chewing gum, for instance, can result in "painful cavities" and a life with "no teeth." And missing out on an afternoon's serving of flaxseed could lead to "a painful, hard time on the potty." Each new, colorful page reveals a different food and accompanying advice as the number of servings slowly climbs to ten.
Designed for preschool-age readers, the illustrations are appropriately simple, colorful, and childlike. Similarly, the narrator often resorts to terms of endearment when addressing the reader, terms such as "buddy," "my prodigy," and "your majesty," which lend the book a warm, friendly, and sometimes humorous tone. Still, while the food advice is written with good intentions, the content may sometimes prove inappropriate for the book's target audience. Teaching children that the "Omega-3 good fats" in salmon can "prevent you from dying prematurel" may be too strong a message, particularly for children just learning how to count. Along the same lines, the message that "the potassium in the banana will make you more alert so that when you put your hand on a hot stove one day, you'll quickly move it away" introduces an unnecessary element of peril in an otherwise kid-friendly narrative.