The Popcorn Astronauts: And Other Biteable Rhymes

by Deborah Ruddell, Joan Rankin (Illustrator)

Overview

Take a bite out of the calendar with this cheerful collection of delicious seasonal poems, each one an ode to a favorite food!

The daring popcorn astronauts
are brave beyond compare—
they scramble into puffy suits
and hurtle through the air.

And when they land, we say hooray
and crowd around the spot
to salt the little astronauts
and eat them while they’re hot.

Dive into a watermelon lake and sing the praises of mac and cheese in this playful and poetic celebration of food. In spring, bow to the “Strawberry Queen” and eat “Only Guacamole.” In summer you’ll meet Bob the Ogre, who only eats corn on the cob, and in fall, you can learn “21 Things to Do with an Apple.” And then in winter, retreat from the cold at “The Cocoa Cabana!”

Stellar team Deborah Ruddell and Joan Rankin deliver a whimsical celebration of the tastiest treats of life in this palatable poetry collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442465558
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	03/24/2015
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Deborah Ruddell is the author of the celebrated picture books Who Said Coo?, illustrated by Robin Luebs, and A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk and Today at the Bluebird Cafe, both illustrated by Joan Rankin. Before writing children’s books, she was an art teacher and a graphic designer. Deborah lives in Peoria, Illinois. Visit her at DeborahRuddell.com.

Joan Rankin has illustrated more than twenty-five books for children. She received the South African HAUM Dann Retief Prize for Children’s Book Illustration in 1986 and the Katrina Harris Award for Children’s Book Illustration in 1991. Books she has illustrated include A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson and Off to First Grade by Louise Borden. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/12/2015
The team behind Today at the Bluebird Cafe and A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk reunites for a playful grouping of 21 food-themed poems, organized by season and likely to be as crowd-pleasing as “The Noodles Nibbled Nationwide!/ The Famous Food Celebrities!/ The Couple That You Know and Love!/ The One, the Only, MAC and CHEESE!” (Ruddell knows her audience.) The author is similarly rhapsodic about guacamole and a smoothie of questionable ingredients (“A whisper of pickle/ is what I detect/ with glimmers of turnip/ I didn’t expect”), but making raisins from grapes is another story (“let them go until they look/ like wrinkled rubber rocks/ and have the bold, enchanting taste/ of well-worn pirate socks”). Rankin’s watercolors match Ruddell’s whimsy and enthusiasm ounce for ounce, making for delectable reading. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2015
K-Gr 3—Organized by the four seasons, these 21 brief poems bring out the tastes of the year. Starting with spring strawberries and ending with a giant birthday cake, each selection teases out the most fantastical, delightful, and sensory elements of everyday food. The Strawberry Queen wears an "elegant suit—which is beaded and red" with a "green, leafy crown." Peaches have "flannelpajamaty skin" while raisins have the "enchanting taste/of well-worn pirate socks." The book includes a delicious variety of forms and all of the poems have elements of surprise and adventure. Even the baked potato-canoes will keep readers on the edge of their seats: "They oozed with steam and sour cream./They were loaded with bacon and chives./But silverware was everywhere—/and they barely escaped with their lives." The illustrations combine jerky lines and irregular proportions with soft, wet watercolor washes to create an absurd dreamy quality that brings even more fun to the book. Pair this yummy book of verse with this creative team's other fanciful poetry volumes: A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk: A Forest of Poems (2009) and Today at the Bluebird Café: A Branchful of Birds (2007, both S. & S.). VERDICT A must-serve in most collections.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

★ 2014-12-06
Ruddell's collection of 21 bite-sized poems whets even the littlest of literary appetites. Divided (sometimes arbitrarily) according to the seasons, her poems hopscotch topic, length and approach but are consistently charming. In rhyming verse, she describes a "lickety-split" spring picnic with green grapes, baked beans "and your bow-wow and your blue jeans." "Speaking of Peaches…" pays tribute to summer's favorite stone fruit, its "flowery fragrance" and "flannelpajamaty skin." Fall's "21 Things to Do with an Apple" is a staccato litany of the apple's many wondrous uses ("Twirl it / Float it / Caramel-coat it"), while winter's "The World's Biggest Birthday Cake" boasts vivid imagery: "The cake was a whopper, and I've heard it said, / the sprinkles alone were the size of your head." Readers may, however, scratch their heads at the odd character—an ogre here or Dracula there (in a Halloween-timed poem). True to form, Rankin's muted watercolors match the whimsy of Ruddell's words. Ants frolic in the icy, pink waters of Watermelon Lake and sunbathe on the pale green shore; children wait anxiously, saltshaker in hand, to pounce on popcorn astronauts in puffy suits hurtling through the air. Animals—cats, dogs, storks and more—smile and smirk with expressive detail. A scrumptious set of food-themed poems for budding gourmets, ripe for hours of read-aloud fun. (Picture book/poetry. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews