'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Thursday 25 May 2017

Review: There's Broccoli in My Ice Cream!

Do you have a fussy-eater in your house? Many children go through a phase of not wanting to eat fruit and vegetables. 

The family in Emily Mackenzie’s new book There’s Broccoli in my Ice Cream! are in a similar situation. This funny, read aloud story is sure to delight both children and parents.

Granville’s family is from a long line of award winning greengrocers who love to eat and grow fruit and vegetables. Granville is different. He loves to eat sweet food. The family tries everything to get him to eat healthy food. They sweet-talk him and even hide fruit and veg in his favourite food, but it just doesn’t work.

Granville’s family come together for a top secret meeting to find a way to get him to eat his fruit and vegetables.  Could this be the turning point for their fussy-eater?

MacKenzie entices you to keep reading to see if Granville will succumb to this secrete plan or will he devise his own plan to continue eating the food he likes.

There’s Broccoli in my Ice Cream! is a visual feast. The printed words occasionally change size and capitalisation. MacKenzie uses alliteration, adjectives and rhyme to help tell the story but it is not a verse book.  MacKenzie’s illustrations are bright and colourful. She has used double page spreads that overflow with detail that sometimes include thought bubbles. She uses vignettes to show numerous scenes, including one of Granville and his grandfather planting seeds together. The facial expressions on the characters are great!

Move over savoury ice cream makers, there is a new food van in town.

Title: There’s Broccoli in my Ice Cream!
Author/Illustrator: Emily MacKenzie
Publisher: Bloomsbury, $14.99
Publication Date: 1 February 2017
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781408873304
For ages: 0 - 5
Type: Picture Book