The Boy Who Ate Around

by Henrik Drescher

Mo, a little boy who doesn't want to eat his dinner, turns himself into a series of ever-expanding monsters that eat virtually everything except stringbeans and cheese souffle, including math teachers and entire countries

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 1994

About the author

Henrik Drescher was born in Copenhagen and immigrated to the United States in 1967. He began a career in illustration as a young man and has been traveling throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and China, creating massive journals of notes and drawings wherever he went.

His books are held in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Rijks Museum in Den Haag, Netherlands. He has received numerous other honors including two awards from the Society of Illustrators.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review:
Imaginative, but weird in a way that didn't really work for me. Kid pretending his green beans are gross worms for dinner, sure. Kid pretending he is a monster, again fine. But I really doubt most kids really fantasize about turning into some disgusting creature that then violently devours all their friends, pets, classmates, parents, neighbors, teachers, etc. I wouldn't have minded some (okay, most) of my teachers being eaten by monsters, but the thought of eating them myself never crossed my mind. Yuck.

I found the main part of the illustrations also too gross, and for some kids they might be too scary. I did like the incorporation of ephemera into the scenes.

My cat's review:
This book kept using the word "eat" but there was no food. Worst book ever. Is it dinner time yet?

[Ronyell · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this point, I had almost read every book written by Henrik Drescher and almost every one of them was brilliantly unique and creative to look at! “The Boy Who Ate Around” is clearly one silly and creative book from the creative mind of Henrik Drescher that I just had to check out and this is definitely a story that most children do not want to miss!

When a young boy named Mo refuses to eat his dinner which is lizard guts and bullfrog heads (actually it is really string beans and cheese soufflé), he ends up eating AROUND his dinner and ends up eating everything including his math teacher and his parents, leaving his string beans and cheese soufflé untouched!

Alright, so the moment that you see the cover of this book of a crazed Pinocchio look-alike boy looking at his dinner with a crazed look on his face and you have four bizarre looking monsters surrounding the boy; you know that you are in for a wild ride! Henrik Drescher has done a brilliant job at both writing and illustrating this book as this is easily one of the most surreal books I have ever read! Henrik Drescher’s writing is full of oddity and creativity as the story about how a boy starts eating around his dinner by turning into random monsters was seriously bizarre to read about! What I always loved about Henrik Drescher’s works is that he brings so much creativity to his work that I am always finding myself being so interested in what story he comes up with next. This story was quite unusual since it is not everyday I read a story about a young boy turning into a monster to eat around his dinner, but it was really interesting to see how Mo handles not being able to eat his dinner and finding an odd solution to his problem. Henrik Drescher’s illustrations are truly creative as the monsters that Mo turns into are truly creative to look at, especially the image of the green warthog monster that is completely green and has large bulging eyes.


The reason why I gave this book a four star rating is because while the illustrations were creative and colorful, they are a bit too chaotic as they are all over the page. Also, some of the illustrations might be a bit too creepy for smaller children since there are many monsters in this book and the monster that would probably creep out children the most would be of the image of the bug-eyed slime slusher that has many eyes all over its body.

Overall, “The Boy Who Ate Around” is a great book for children who love reading about monsters and love surreal storylines. However, I would recommend this book to children ages six and up since some of the imagery is a bit too scary for smaller children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit of an odd story about a boy who changes himself into various monsters and ends up eating the whole world and space in order to get out of eating cheese souffle and string beans.

The illustrations are wacky and weird, but fun!

[Freda Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a kid that is a little strange/dark, but in a pleasant way, (or maybe you're trying to steer a kid in that direction), this is the book for them. It's kind of dark and weird in a refreshing way. Kid turns into a monster and basically eats the world. Great illustrations.

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute book

[Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horrific and grotesque, I have to respect it in a way. But I never want to read it again - viscerally unpleasant to look at. This is for kids with strong stomachs.