Fruit Bowl

April 15, 2018
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Ripe with puns, this tale turns on the question.In word bubbles, an off-page child converses with a bevy of colorful, anthropomorphized foodstuffs while putting the produce away: "How's everyone doing?" Lemon's "Full of zest." Strawberry says, "I was jammed in that bag." When the tomato tries to climb into the fruit bowl, everyone questions his right. Tomato then lectures those assembled: Fruits develop from flowers, while veggies might be leaves, stems (asparagus), petals (artichokes, anyone?), or roots. He produces a wacky X-ray showing not only his seeds, but the bones of his skinny arms and legs. Each fruit and vegetable in Hoffmann's digitally composed, hand-lettered gouache pictures sports simple facial features and sticklike limbs. The male tomato and "Old Man Produce"--a wizened prune with bushy gray brows--are explicitly gendered, while a lemon and pepper have full lips and eyelashes, implying they are female. The Old Man delivers a rambling, Zen-like speech that muddies the already-sketchy science. With their new knowledge, a pepper, bean, eggplant, cuke, avocado, snow pea, and yellow squash line up to climb the fruit bowl's ladder. Hoffmann's premise is a bit shaky. Some veggies are typically unrefrigerated (think potatoes), some fruits are regularly kept chilled, and many of those newly ensconced denizens of this fruit bowl (from peppers to squash) keep better in the fridge.Inessential. (Picture book. 4-6)

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Starred review from April 16, 2018
After a mother enlists her child’s help in putting newly purchased vegetables and fruits away, the young speaker, whose presence appears only as a word balloon, greets the fruits as old friends: “Oh, Pear. I’m glad you’re back in season.” The kid makes sure each one gets safely into the bowl, but why is Tomato trying to crash the party? “You belong in the fridge with the other vegetables,” says the child. Savvy Tomato has the facts on his side: he started out as a seed, he explains, as did many of his comrades who are usually classified as vegetables and now demand their rightful place in the blue fruit bowl, too. In his first foray as writer and illustrator, Hoffmann (illustrator of You Can Read) offers a fun, brain-teasing food literacy lesson that’s a cornucopia of produce and wordplay. His naive-styled fruits—they look like generously proportioned cut-outs with stick arms and legs—have vivid personalities, and their gouache colors are positively juicy. Ages 3–7. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

June 1, 2018

PreS-Gr 1-A disgraced tomato relegated to the crisper tries to convince readers that tomatoes are fruits. After his attempt to climb into the fruit bowl is foiled, a disappointed tomato uses logic, an X-ray, and, eventually, the wisdom of Old Man Produce to convince the audience that tomatoes really are fruits. When he regains his rightful place in the fruit bowl, tomato introduces some other vegetables that are actually fruits in disguise. An imaginative and entertaining reimagination of the relatively dull task of putting away the groceries and a thinly veiled "Tomatoes are Fruits" PSA. The anthropomorphized fruit are rendered in thick gouache paint on the bright kitchen background with simple but expressive faces and wiggly arms. The story is best enjoyed one-on-one as the text is conveyed entirely through word bubbles and readers will enjoy finding the puns, subtle and otherwise, that are sprinkled liberally throughout. VERDICT An a-peel-ing addition with lots of curricular connections. For larger collections.-Laken Hottle, Providence Community Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2018
Grades K-2 Every fruit is welcome to the fruit-bowl party: peach, apple, grape, and tomato! Wait?tomato? Pepper's not buying it: You're being kind of saucy. Neither is banana: You'll have to split. But Tomato is armed with evidence, and after gathering the dubious fruits together, he lectures them on how they all began as flowers. Furthermore, not all fruit is sweet; some are tangy, tart, or sour. Finally, in the book's funniest turn, the fruits journey to wise, wrinkled Old Man Produce. It's a plum who, like some mystic sage, asks philosophical questions like If the tomato is not a fruit, is he not delicious? Duly convinced, the fruits' final shock is the sudden cavalcade of other fruits they didn't know about: a squash, a pickle, a zucchini, and more. Hoffmann brings the foods to life with big, bright, often extreme close-up illustrations, with all-cap hand-lettering adding to the emphatic vibe. No doubt kids will learn a thing or two, and have some light chuckles along the way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)