Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

by Judi Barrett

illustrated by Ron Barrett

(New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1978)

Hardcover, 32 Pages, Children’s

ISBN: 9780689306471, US$16.95

From the Cover: The tiny town of Chewandswallow was very much like any other tiny town except for its weather which came three times a day, at breakfast lunch and dinner. But it never rained rain and it never snowed snow and it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed things like mashed potatoes. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers. Life for the townspeople was delicious until the weather took a turn for the worse. The food got larger and larger and so did the portions. Chewandswallow was plagued by damaging floods and storms of huge food. The town was a mess and the people feared for their lives. Something had to be done, and in a hurry.

My Review: This “Blast from the Past” came to my attention again when, a couple of weeks ago, I saw the trailer for the animated film adaptation online. After remembering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the next time we went to the library, I made sure to check it out so I could read it to my son and daughter.

My son loved it. My daughter … well, she’s one, so it’ll take some time for her to appreciate it. But, as I said, my son loved it. He liked the drawings and the wacky idea that hamburgers and juice and spaghetti fall from the sky. (He’s sitting next to me looking at it and laughing and calling it “silly” as I type this review. SCORE!) For my part, this is a book that is filled with nostalgia. I remember this book from my childhood, and I loved the whimsical premise, and, like my son, I thoroughly enjoyed Ron Barrett’s great illustrations. They are absolutely marvelous, and looking at them from the perspective of nearly three decades, they almost seem to have a MAD Magazine-like quality to them.

They are also quite memorable. The drawings of the giant pancake on the school, the pea soup fog, the roofless restaurant, or the lady with the stroller running from a giant donut—to name just a few—are images that have stayed with me since my childhood, and I am thrilled to be able to share it with my children.

As for the film adaptation, I am torn. Independent of the book, it looks like a lot of fun (and the fact that it stars Anna Farris, Bruce Campbell, Bill Hader and Mr. T is a big plus). However, taken together with the book, it looks like a disappointment on two levels: (1) it explains why Chewandswallow has the weather it does. That was part of the original charm of the book, that it was unexplained and just taken as fact. And (2) the makers have departed from Barrett’s illustrative style creating a more cartoony look for the film, which is just the biggest disappointment I could think of.

So, in my opinion, skip taking your kids to the film, and read them the book instead. They’ll thank you for it, I promise.