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Pickles to Pittsburg: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2    by Judi Barrett & Ron Barrett Amazon.com order for
Pickles to Pittsburg
by Judi Barrett
Order:  USA  Can
Simon & Schuster, 2013 (2012)
Hardcover, Softcover
* * *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

If you liked the original Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, you'll love this sequel. Released in a Classic Board Book format, it appears to be for young children but upon closer inspection it quickly becomes obvious that older youngsters and adults will also find this a fun read.

Henry and Kate fly off on an adventure that takes them to an island that, from the air, 'looks like a gigantic feast' consisting of immense veggies, salads and desserts. Upon closer inspection that's exactly what the children find. The larger-than-life landscape consists of forests of carrots and gigantic bagels you can drive a car through, with orange flavored rain gently wetting the landscape.

What's even more remarkable is that helicopters move giant tuna fish sandwiches, trucks haul enormous eggplants and potatoes, and other big sandwiches are loaded onto ships in the port near the town of Chewandswallow. This is all part of a vast operation of a company called the Falling Food Company. This firm provides free food for large and small countries in need of assistance.

This fanciful story, like its predecessor, is so much fun because the detailed illustrations demand close inspection. There are so many marvelous things happening on each page you'll want to scrutinize it carefully. Whether it is elephants moving French fries or a caravan of camels carrying slices of pizza draped over their humps, what you see here is quite amazing.

The sturdy format of the book means that it will last for a long, long time and that's a good thing because this is a picture book you'll want to hold on to and pass down from one generation to the next!

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