Sally Strawberry

Munch Bunch

by Giles Reed, Angela Mitson

Sally Strawberry Reed, Giles

32 pages, Library Binding

First published May 4, 1979

About the author

Giles Reed is a pseudonym used by authors Barrie Henderson, Elizabeth Henderson, and Denis Bond for the original Munch Bunch children's book series, published between 1979 and 1984. The books featured stories about anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables, often illustrated by Angela Mitson.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this in my parents’ attic, one of my childhood books. I think I had a few other books in the series featuring anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables, but not sure. It’s a small, thin paperback.

The story didn’t really age well. Sally Strawberry loves to paint and in invites her friends over to see her paintings of flowers. Spud the potato disparages her paintings due to the subject matter, and suggests she paints his portrait. When she runs out of brown, she uses other colors. When Spid sees the painting he calls it the worst and gets angry because he is all brown. Sally is understandably upset. Professor Peapod comes over, poirs water on ghe painting to mix the colors to make it brown. And all is well.

So we have a female character bullied and abused by one male character but it seems that’s fine, and having what she did wrong fixed (in a way that would actually ruin it) by another male character. She’s an artist, but doesn’t know how to mix colors? Also, she’s an artist and liked her painting, but that doesn’t matter. Spud is not paying for the painting, he just criticizes her other work then demands she paint him, and she docilely goes along either way it all.

This does show how children’s books of this era could reinforce gender stereotypes.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to own almost all the books from the Munch Bunch series when I was a boy. Think I’m right in stating that I had all those that concentrated on a specific character or set of characters but didn’t have any of the “specials”.

It’s sad in a way that I remember hardly anything about this title or the others I owned, considering how I used to repeatedly read them during 1981-83. I may well have returned to them as late as 1985 but I’ve put a random date from 1983 in the details below rather than leave it blank

Based on the frequency of times I turned these pages in my boyhood I feel that I’m right to rate this – and all the others in the series – 5 stars.

Thanks for brightening up my childhood, Mr Reed!