Never Take a Pig to Lunch: And Other Poems About the Fun of Eating (Orchard Paperbacks)

by Nadine Bernard Westcott (Illustrator)

Here are more than 60 delicious poems that capture a child's-eye view of food, from the joys of eating pizza and ice cream to the art of avoiding liver and school lunch. Rollicking verses by Eve Merriam, Jack Prelutsky and others combined with vibrant, laugh-out loud illustrations ensure a book that children will devour. Full color.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Picture Books, Food, Anthologies, Humor

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Nadine Bernard Westcott is the illustrator of many popular books for children, including Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash and Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash, as well as the author and illustator of The Lady With The Alligator Purse. She used to spend many hours chasing after her dog, who would come home only when ready and not a minute sooner. Ms. Westcott lives on Nantucket with her husband, Bill.

Reviews

[Mandy Grathwohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by far the silliest collection of poetry I’ve ever stumbled upon, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad! Opposite, actually. It includes work from one of the most well-known children’s poets ever, Jack Prelutsky, plus several winners of the NCTE’s Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, and takes the topic of eating to new, funny levels. Short poems and long poems intermingle to tell different stories all about the dining table that are sweet and sad and disgusting, and 100% relatable to any child that reads it—because everyone eats, and who wouldn’t want to make the experience even more fun?

Several studies have shown that children prefer poetry that is humorous, exciting, and rhythmic, and this book delivers in all aspects. Bright illustrations correlating to each poem pop on every page, drawing the eye in to various elements that then bring you back to the poem, so that you may discover something you might have missed. I’ve gone through this book several times and each time have found something new, because the illustrations, all done by anthology editor Nadine Bernard Westcott, are incredibly detailed, and fun to look at. Children are sure to spend hours with this book, playing with the great language within, and falling into the colorful world that Westcott creates in her art.

[Katie Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really cute book of poems that I would say is appropriate for third graders. The poems focus on the different feelings you can get from eating various foods, told from a silly perspective! One way that I could use this book in my classroom would be to have the students read this book and then write a poem about their favorite food and how it makes them feel. Another way that I could use this book in my instruction is by having the students pick one poem from the book and have them rewrite it in a different poetic form after a lesson on the different forms of poems. I thought that this was a WOW book because it was a really fun book of poems to read! I honestly never really enjoyed reading poetry, and I think a lot of kids don't, but the poems in this book are funny and take a kid's perspective of what eating different foods is like. This book will help students realize they can relate to poetry and it's not just old, stuffy stories.

Not an E-text.

[Madeline Knauff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book really enjoyable, it brought me back to when I was a kid reading poems. I specially liked how fun it was, and all the illustrations that went along with it. It was interesting and a good kids book.

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun anthology of poems about eating. I read it to the children and we all enjoyed the selected poems and the illustrations.

[Jamie Pesek · Rating 5 out of 5]

fav childhood book

[Mrs Heet -Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and sometimes gross poems about food and eating. Kids from Kindergarten to 4th grade find them very funny!

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never Take A Pig To Lunch
PLOT: Don't even have to summarize. The title pretty much says what this is about. It's a collection of poems about food and eating.

MY THOUGHTS: This is an older book I've had for a while. I'm surprised to have been even able to find it on Open Library. If my memory serves me correctly I got this book from the elementary school my mother used to teach at and just never returned it. Unfortunately, the school isn't there anymore. But I'm guessing what drew me to this book is that I have a love of books that have anything to do with foods and the mention of. So, of course, a book of poems about food would attract my attention. This was a delightful read! The illustrations of each poem were fun and colorful. Big. Sometimes they stretched into the next page. The poems themselves were whimsical, cutesy, and humorous. There were four sections. Which are, "Look Out Stomach Here It Comes" (poems about eating silly things), "We All Scream For Ice Cream" (poems about eating things we like), "Never Eat More Than You Can't Lift " (poems about eating too much), and "Mother Says I'm Sickening" (poems about manners at the table). Since this is a short book I'll tell my favorites ones for each section.

*"Look Out Stomach Here It Comes" My favorite one here is "BALONEY". It's about a little boy that only gets baloney in his lunch yet in a variety of ways but when asked why he doesn't make it himself he says that’s the only thing he knows how to make. Ironically I probably could eat baloney like that and in all these ways. Ok well except with mustard. I also liked "WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT FOOD " which although it list absurd stuff (like spaghetti just being worms) when you think about it sometimes we really *don't* know about what goes into what we're putting in our digestive system and when you think about it like that it's a little scary.

*"We All Scream For Ice Cream" (Ain't that the truth?) Or something sweet in my case. My favorites were "SPAGHETTI SPAGHETTI" and "HOW DO YOU MAKE A PIZZA GROW". How is it possible to get hungry off a two-dimensional drawing of a pizza and actually smell the oregano and cheese scent? So many fun food poems in this section that will make your stomach growl. You'll be thinking I WANT THAT! There's one about Snow Cones (which brought back memories of how my cousin would make mental lists of the flavors we tried way back when). And making chocolate fudge (which reminded me of a BSC book I read and envied because not only do I love chocolate PERIOD I think this would be fun to do). This is probably my favorite section for all the great food choices to make poems out of. And I tried some chocolate fudge recently and it was SO GOOD!

*"Never Eat More Than You Can Lift" My favorite one here is "I ATE TOO MUCH". Which is about someone that eats so much they couldn't possibly eat another bit but then sees a delicious looking piece of cake and there goes that thought right out the window. Even though I don't think my body would allow me to ever be in the position because I have an illness that won't let me do this EVER I don't think very often (if I could get away with it) I'd turn down dessert. I'd just take it with me in a to-go box and eat it later.

*"Mother Says I'm Sickening" "CLEAN PLATTER sounds a lot like me. Simple and to the point. Always in the mood for food. "NEVER TAKE A PIG TO LUNCH" itself was fun.


RATING 6 This was fun and silly and nonsensical! And it brought back memories of a library that I still rave on and will never forget because of its attic and thoughts of possibly having read this in that attic.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. The age range for this book is typically for four year old and older.
2. Never Take a Pig to Lunch is a compilation of many poems based around food, by many different authors. They are both comical, and teach lessons. The book is illustrated with vivid pictures that capture the children attention, and illustrate the poems clearly. The poems are comical and witty!
3. This book offers a multitude of reading experiences, which is great for students who have difficulty sitting and reading through one long story. They can use this book as a means to feel as though they finished a book, however, each poem is relatively short.
4. This book would be effective in teaching children beginning poetry. Such as rhyming scheme, stanza structure and tightening and sharpening of ideas.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

-A compilation of poems that are all different lengths and styles about food.
-A lot of them rhyme which makes them fun to read.
-My favorite was about a baloney sandwich!
-Different ethnicities and locations around the world.
-Hundreds of poems about food and eating it, great for any grade above 1st. (2-5)
-Each student can take a different type of food and study its origin and then study how it was developed and interesting facts about it.
-Students write there own rhyming poem about a food they like to eat.

[Ruqayya Jarad · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are more than 60 poems about the fun of eating. It is a food-oriented collection of limericks, free verse, and other styles of rhyme. This book organized into four overlapping categories: "eating silly things," "eating foods we like," "eating too much" and "manners at the table." Nadine Westcott puts the emphasis on fun: she also gave Miss Piggy's advice about diets "Never eat more than you can lift." The book was done with vibrant, laugh-out loud illustrations. Children will love to read this book. It is grade 1-4

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations, layout of the text, and easy, silly poems made this book really enjoyable to read. I think it is great that the author separated the poems into four different categories: Poems about eating silly things, eating foods we like, eating too much, and manners at the table. I wholeheartedly believe that children will find this book of many poems exciting to read because the topic is so relevant to anyone. Also, I think it would be great for children to find their favorite poem and try and write their own poem about that food.

[Emma Cisar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun book is full of fun poetry collections! The bright pictures and illustrations make the poems POP right out of the page. I really enjoyed reading these poems! They encompass eating (which the title says) but also some other poems not related to eating. This poem book includes fun poems that could be useful when teaching lessons/manners. A fun read with lots of great depictions!

[Brenda Pritchard]

preschool story time; print motivation, phonological awareness;

This is a book of easy, silly poems about food. Kids will love the silliness in the book and it gets and keeps their attention. It will even encourage some children interaction with the story time presenter.

[Michelle Cropper · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is made for older kids. My three year old did not like this book.

[Dominique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never take a pig to

[Katie Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually first saw this book used in the classroom last semester in 2nd grade, my teacher would just use it for fun if she had extra time. I decided to read it for myself, it is just a collection of funny poems having to do with eating habits of children. For a part of my Re-Envisioning Project, I read a couple poems of this book before introducing my nutrition lesson. The kids thought they were super funny and it was a great way to enter into what proper eating habit should look like. I had the students create a balanced meal menu whole class, then break into partners to do it. This could also be used when poetry starts being introduced in the upper grades, and I think it would be fun to let the kids do some goofy and funny poetry, along with the silly theme of the book. This would be best for maybe 3rd grade, and is under the poetry genre. There are 60 poems and is a pretty quick read and super entertaining!