School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Smiling oranges, mushroom "men," pepper "people," bananas that look like giraffes, eggplant penguins, and cauliflower sheep are just a few of the delightful food sculptures that grace the pages of this fun, educational offering. Freymann explores various concepts including shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and opposites with the help of his signature vegetable and fruit characters. The concepts are well executed, and although the triangular carrot does not have perfectly straight lines, its shape is recognizable. Children will thoroughly enjoy the clever artwork and adorable characters. A visual treat.-Melinda Piehler, Sawgrass Elementary School, Sunrise, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Favorite characters (and even produce!) make a comeback this spring. Food for Thought: The Complete Book of Concepts for Growing Minds by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers, the team behind How Are You Peeling? uses their signature vegetable and fruit "faces" to explore shapes, colors, numbers, letters and opposites, showcased in a paper-over-board gallery of spectacular photographs. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In this clever concept book, Freymann and Elffers use their popular edible sculptures, e.g., giraffes sculpted from bananas and a radish man driving a cucumber car, to teach about shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and opposites. Though some of the fruit-and-vegetable constructions were seen in previous volumes, they still seem fresh as they successfully interpret the various concepts. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Even cleverer than the instantly classic How Are You Peeling? Foods With Moods (1999), this gallery of hilariously animistic grocery-store produce presents common shapes and colors, the alphabet, numbers 1-10, and nine pairs of basic opposites in a truly memorable way. Using mostly black-eyed peas for eyes and taking brilliant advantage of natural variations in shape to create an amazing variety of facial expressions, Freymann skillfully poses a photographed menagerie of leafy fish, cauliflower sheep, banana giraffes and less classifiable creatures made from carved oranges, squash, wonderfully lumpy green peppers and much more against nearly featureless backgrounds. Viewers can't help but respond to the art's broad, infectious humor, and for members of the diapered set, big one- or two-word captions have been added to each page. Vegetarians who refuse to eat any "food with a face" are in deep trouble. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
PreS. Freymann and Elffers previously used their ingenious food sculptures to introduce concepts in How Are You Peeling (1999) and One Lonely Sea Horse (2000). They have truly perfected their craft in this winning collection that covers basic shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and opposites--all introduced through images of artfully manipulated fruits and vegetables. Solid, candy-colored backgrounds showcase an irresistible cast of produce-part creatures, which, thanks to a few inspired cuts, reflect an astonishing assortment of expressions and personalities. The simple, clean design is ideal for demonstrating the concepts; the uncluttered spreads make counting and identification easy. But it's the playful, wonderfully clever transformation of familiar foods that will win an audience; preschoolers will howl gleefully over glistening green-pepper frogs and a snowman of stacked mushroom caps, who toasts his marshmallow over fruit-skin flames. Fans of their previous books will find much that is familiar here, but in this mix of concept and unabashed food play, the authors get the formula just right. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2005 Booklist