Little Pea hates eating candy for dinner, but his parents will not let him have his spinach dessert until he cleans his plate.
If Little Pea doesn't eat all of his sweets, there will be no vegetables for dessert! What's a young pea to do? Children who have trouble swallowing their veggies will love the way this pea-size picture book serves up a playful story they can relate to.
A crowd pleaser in the tradition of Mitchell Sharmat's "Gregory, The Terrible Eater" (1980), illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, this simply told and illustrated episode features both a decidedly atypical family (all head, no body) facing a similar dinnertime issue, and a delicious final twist. Little Pea's generally a happy legume, hanging with friends, rolling down hills, and being catapulted off a spoon by Papa Pea--but meals are always fraught, for Little Pea hates candy, which as you know (you didn't?) is all that peas eat. "If you don't finish your candy, you can't have dessert," says Mama Pea. Negotiating his quota down to five cellophane-wrapped pieces, Little Pea proceeds to choke them down--"Three. Plck. Four. Pleh."--then jumps for joy at dessert's arrival--a heaping bowl of spinach. Expect bursts of hilarity from young listeners, picky eaters or no. Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Picky eaters will enjoy the subtle humor of this topsy-turvy tale." School Library Journal