Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Audible Audiobook)

Author/Illustrator: Judi Barrett/RonBarrett
Narrator: Jerry Terheyen
Genre: Modern Fantasy
Awards: Colorado Children's Best Book Award, The Golden Sower Award of New England
Age Level: 6+ years old

Summary:  The audible book begins by a grandpa telling a story to his grandson Henry. He begins by telling him that the town of Chewandswallow might have looked like an average tiny town with their houses, trees, cats and dogs. The thing it was missing was food stores. The weather fell upon the town at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Unlike other towns, Chewandswallow didn't precipitate with through rain, snow, or wind. Every few hours, the clouds would rain food items. Everything that anyone ever ate had come from the sky. There came a day where the food got damagingly larger. One morning, storms of pancakes and floods of maple syrup almost flooded the town. Later, the sea was full of floating rolls and the workers couldn't seem to clean it up fast enough. The town was a complete mess and the sanitation department gave up on the town because the everything was so damaged by the huge meatballs, even the schools had been closed. So, they made the decision to abandon the town and move to safety on their roll rafts. Once they drifted to safety, they constructed temporary homes in their new town. The families had a terrible time shopping for food for their families. They do their best to make a new life in this town even though they are left discouraged and missing the storms of hamburgers and pancakes from their tiny town of Chewandswallow. Once grandpa finishes the story, Henry looks outside and sees children playing outside in the snow. He imagines that they are in mashed potatoes snow mountains. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is full of creativity, imagination, and originality.

Illustrations were not present in the audiobook version that I was listening too. The cover illustration seems to be drawn in black ink with a comic-looking character. The grandpa is very detailed from his jacket design to the smile on his face.

In my classroom, I would present this to my students at the beginning of the year (hurricane season) in hopes to give them a new perspective on storms. We never know when a storm is going to hit or disaster is going to strike. Even though it won't rain meatballs, this story shows a supportive community working together and demonstrates them handling diversions properly.