Books like The Seven Silly Eaters

Five stars thanks to Marla Frazee's illustrations. I loved her work in All the World and am now a devoted fan. Her illustrations of family life just make me feel so happy! I am at once flooded with sweet memories of my own childhood and full of dreams for when I have kids of my own. She creates families and home-life that I can totally relate to! Not a neat-as-a-pin house, but one full of character with happy messes and signs of hobbies and work and love and life all over the place. In my opinion, she makes this book more than the rhyming text would allow. Here is the story of the Peters family. As each baby comes along, Mrs. Peters finds that it has its own fussy way of being picky-eater--one only wants warm milk (not hot or cold!), one lemonade, one oatmeal, etc. Poor Mrs. Peters is always cooking so many different dishes (to her credit, hey, at least she is cooking from scratch! but I also felt a tad annoyed that she carried on like that for seven children, seems to spoil them over much--but, then again, this is a bit of an exaggerated story, of course) The final resolution is very sweet and Mrs. Peters finally has some help in the kitchen and a dish everyone will love.Frazee's illustrations really bring the story to life. In addition to the fun little household scenes and tidbits here and there (like Mrs Peters practicing the cello--what a cool mom!) we also have the inclusion of MR Peters, who is completely absent from the text. He seems to be a hardworking chap, always bringing home food for the kids--so at least it's not like he's heaping all the work on his wife. And the family does seem very happy except for their food fiascos! ;-pAll in all, I recommend this for the illustrations if you like Marla Frazee--and if you haven't yet been introduced to her work, then give it a try! Though, I do think All the World is a better overall story.