Book Review: Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

"That's so funny, I'm going to throw up!"

In my living room, I have an easel that holds my current favorite picture book for display (and quick reading access!) Right now, Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! is on display.

I discovered this book through a friend's blog. She called it "gardenlicious". I was hoping for some inspiration for the children to want to get our garden up and going. We--meaning Brent--are taking baby steps to getting our garden planted. (As a result of deep rooted childhood experiences . . . gardening makes me grumpy!) Brent did a great job last year of building square foot garden boxes and putting soil in them. I don't think "we" planted anything. But, here comes another spring to keep trying! The book did it's job. We are now quite excited to plant a garden (even me)!

Mr. McGreely dreamed of planting a garden. One day he decides, "This is it! I'm going to plant a garden." He carefully hoes and sows and watches his garden grow. Then one night, three cute, but conniving, bunnies sneak into his garden. They chomp his blossoms, chew his stems, nibble his leaves and gnaw his sprouts. The wordplay is catchy and the darling illustrations intertwine perfectly with the text. As Mr. McGreely tries harder and harder to allow "no bunny" to enter his garden, the giggles get bigger and better!

We read the book after scripture snack. The children were enjoying giant ice cream cones (in celebration of Sophia passing off Minuet 3 in Book 3 and Coco passing off Go Tell Aunt Rhody) At the finale of the story the giggles turned to guffaws. . . and Coco raced around the counter to the garbage can calling out, "That's so funny, I'm going to throw up!"

Sidenote: The summertime consequence/punishment when I was growing up was, "Go pull 100 weeds." The winter consequence was "Go mate the socks." In a household with seven children this meant a lot of weeding and a lot of mating. (Of the socks!)But, it ruined me forever. Now I despise pulling weeds and mating socks. I must have been in trouble often to have such deep set antipathy toward such simple tasks!