Food for Thought by Saxton Freymann

Food For Thought
by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Ages 2+
Topics: basic concepts, fruit, vegetables

Food for Thought is a uniquely illustrated preschool concept book. It covers shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and opposites in a highly entertaining way. Freymann illustrates his books with glossy color photographs of highly imaginative sculptured animals and people made entirely from vegetables and fruits. His great talent is creating recognizably human expressions on oranges, peppers, radishes, bok choy, strawberries, and mushrooms and creating understandable interactions between the characters.

All of Freymann's creations are magical and young children will have tons of fun learning their colors, letters, numbers and counting with this book. Here are some of my favorites illustrations to whet your appetite: Number 2 is illustrated with two chicks (a yellow squash and a red pear) hatching out of their shells (white onions); Seven fish are bok choy and other vegetable fish floating in the ocean;"O" is for Owl (made from two artichokes);"Q" is for Queen whose body and gown is made from bok choy, her head and headress is a leek.

The most entertaining part of the book is the opposites section, particularly the mushroom people who gleefully illustrate up-and-down on a seesaw, and the mushroom snowman roasting a marshmallow over a fire of mango to illustrate hot and cold.

This book is really amazing and would make the perfect gift for any young child.

Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers have collaborated on several children's books with their signature food sculptures including How Are You Peeling?, Dr Pompo's Nose, and The Lonely Seahorse.