Picky Nicky

by Cathy East Dubowski, Mark Dubowski

Picky eater Nicky declares that she would rather eat bees and parrots than peas and carrots until her inventive family devises a clever plan to overcome her finicky habits.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Food

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 1996

About the author

Cathy East Dubowski is a narrator, editor, and illustrator. She specializes in novelizations of movies and literary classics for children and young adult readers. Dubowski has written more than 100 books for children, including adaptations of The Aristocats, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, and Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A picky eater finds a way to eat her peas and carrots in this silly book that managed to tickle my funny bone with its rhyming rebuses.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It delivers a simple picky eating of kid and how to overcome it. It is something the kid can relate to.The illustrations are simple and direct. the layout of this book is great. with some keywords replaced by picture, this helps to test the kids knowledge about words.


It ends with some flash cards. It is great. I am actually looking for a copy ourselves.

[Karly · Rating 4 out of 5]

With beings picky eater myself I loved this book. I thought this was a unique way to show children that they can go out of their food comfort zone. This is a great book to introduced to young readers due to the simple words and ‘picture words.’

[Cecilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! :)

[Golda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because it was all silly. It was a mix of easy and hard to read, but I read the whole thing because it made me laugh.

[Nicole]

Pick up from my childhood. I loved this book and I still love spaghetti. I don't like that some words are pictures, but maybe I did back then. Doesn't hit the same as when I was little.

[Jeepz · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kiddo got this for Xmas past (it's now Feb) and she just recently pulled it out to start reading it. I like a lot about this First Reader book. First, it has a bunch of words she already knows (mom, dad, is, the, Picky Nicky) which is a real boost to her feeling like she can do this whole reading thing. Second, there are obviously words she doesn't know, but she can sound out easily enough. They don't have tricky silent sounds or difficult combination sounds, and it doesn't take her long to latch onto the right letter sound (like hard or soft e, or remembering that th is "th") and figure out what the word says. Third, it also has pictures that she can see and "read", and what's more the picture words rhyme, so that further helps and gives it a sometimes sing-song quality that makes reading fun. Of the three first reader books she got, I like this one the best.

[Rochelle Sondae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned that I need to study the flash cards at the end of the book before reading books in this series. I called the parrots "birds" and the apes "monkeys" so my reading didn't rhyme as well as the author intended the first time through. I realized my mistake with "apes and grapes" but couldn't figure out what bird name rhymed with "carrots". Good thing they printed the flash cards for me! That said, it was a fun rebus story that I would recommend to others.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being as this is the first book I learned to read on my own at age 4 or 5, I have to say that I highly recommend Picky Nicky for young readers. This book served as the first stepping stone that led me down the path of a love for books and reading. I'll also admit that I particularly liked this book when I was younger, because I was a picky eater, much like Nicky.

[Rbettermann]

This fun little book is written by Cathy East Dubowski and Mark Dubowski. I would recommend this for Kindergarten and read it for the students during a health lesson or just for fun. It comes with vocabulary cards in the back that we would take about before reading the book.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for my picky son.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picky Nicky
Dubowski, Cathy East
"early reader with pictographs to help with word association, good for esl students kindergarten and preschool.
"

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book proves the importance of trying new things...Nicky however is a little too sassy at some points, something a child could learn to pick up on.

[Srirram Raman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early reading