FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Even cleverer than the instantly classic How Are You Peeling? Foods With Moods (1999), this gallery of hilariously animistic grocery-store produce presents common shapes and colors, the alphabet, numbers 1-10, and nine pairs of basic opposites in a truly memorable way. Using mostly black-eyed peas for eyes and taking brilliant advantage of natural variations in shape to create an amazing variety of facial expressions, Freymann skillfully poses a photographed menagerie of leafy fish, cauliflower sheep, banana giraffes and less classifiable creatures made from carved oranges, squash, wonderfully lumpy green peppers and much more against nearly featureless backgrounds. Viewers can’t help but respond to the art’s broad, infectious humor, and for members of the diapered set, big one- or two-word captions have been added to each page. Vegetarians who refuse to eat any “food with a face” are in deep trouble. (Picture book. 3-6)