This book is a pure pleasure to read aloud. The rhymes are clever and apparently effortless. My boys laugh and laugh at the ever increasing number of children in the family (the seven silly eaters of the title) and their ridiculously specific list of food demands. The pictures are absolutely wonderful–Marla Frazee is an amazing artist and her renditions of the goings on are priceless. My only qualm is that the mom seems responsible for just about everything (you see the dad in the background now and then, but he is barely mentioned in the text) and she spends a decade getting more and more frazzled before she finally lets the family know that she’s “a wreck.”
Sometimes we talk about how how the rest of the family could have pitched in more and how the mom could have put her foot down (much, much) sooner. But only sometimes. Most of the time we too busy giggling at the pictures and chanting along with the lines.
Author: Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrator: Marla Frazee
