Little Pea

Little Books

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Jen Corace

"Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace strike beautiful balance between story and art in Little Pea ." — The New York Times

A sweet and amusing story to which little picky eaters can If Little Pea doesn't eat all of his sweets, there will be no vegetables for dessert! What's a young pea to do? A delightful twist on a classic parent predicament, children will enjoy the unique tale and find themselves relating with Little Pea more than expected.

• An entertaining story about meal times with charming text that families can enjoy together
• Features simple, yet impactful illustrations that are engaging and help readers connect to the story
• Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a Chicago-based writer and Mama Pea. She is the author of Encyclopedia of Our Ordinary Life . This is her first children's book

"Picky eaters will enjoy the subtle humor of this topsy-turvy tale." — School Library Journal

Fans of Little Oink , Little Hoot , and Duck! Rabbit! will enjoy the sweet musings of Little Pea and his loving family adventures.

• Great family read-aloud book
• Books for kids ages 2-4
• Books for preschool and up

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Food, Storytime, Humor, Fiction, Family

36 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2005

About the author

SHORT BIO:

Amy Krouse Rosenthal was.
She divided her time.


NOT SO SHORT BIO:

Amy Krouse Rosenthal was a person who liked to make things.
Some things she liked to make include:

Children's books. (Little Pea, Spoon, DuckRabbit)
Grown-up books. (Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life)
Short films. (The Beckoning of Lovely, The Money Tree)
Guided journals. (The Belly Book)
Something out of nothing. (see above)

A longtime contributor to WBEZ and to the TED conference,
Amy lived with her family in Chicago and online at whoisamy.com.

Reviews

[Cindy Pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and simple 5 minute read; I read this with Nikkee who enjoyed it way more than I did because of how funny/cute the peas' faces were. I read this after "How to Make Friends with a Ghost" which I enjoyed much more because it was more unique and creatively put together; in contrast this was forgettable but harmless.

[Jessica✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This makes me wish I had a little one to share in these lovely little short stories Rosenthal writes.
Did I mention their cute because they are stinking cute.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

وای گوگولی!

And they lived hap-pea-ly ever after.

۳.۱۴۰۴

[Relyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Really, really loved it. What a perfect ending. And, such an accessible story. I plan to use it when I do my mini-lesson on ending your story. (I teach second grade.) Endings are so hard to get right and this will be an excellent example.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Last school year Sloane stayed home sick with her Daddy. It was about January of 2010. Anyway, she got bored, but had to be still. So, she reread Little Pea and decided to write a book for me. She called it Tiny Corn and gave credit to the author right on the cover of her book. It was marvelous. Even better - when Sloane was feeling well again, she came to school and taught my class a mini-lesson using her book. The lesson title was, "Good writers are inspired by other writers, but they never steal." It was one of my best days as a teacher or a parent. No kidding - she taught the entire lesson. To her peers. Awesome!

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books read in our grandma reads session today.

Short and sweet, about a kid pea who has food issues. He doesn't like what is offered for dinner. When my kiddos saw what it was he had to eat for dinner they were bowled over with laughter and fully engaged to the book's quick end. A brilliant way to hook them and make the point that preference is a choice and that the way around the problem can be solved by focusing on this difference in perspective.

I love a book that quickly presents the problem and deftly, cleverly provides at least a part of the solution if not all of it.

[Arezoo Gholizadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

چطور می‌شه داستانی به این سادگی دو تا پلات‌توییست درست‌وحسابی داشته باشه؟ :)) خیلی بامزه بود.

[La Coccinelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute little story that might appeal to picky eaters. Little Pea is... well, a pea. He lives with Papa Pea and Mama Pea and does fun stuff like getting flung off the end of cutlery by his father. But the one thing he doesn't like doing? Eating his dinner. All he wants is dessert, but he has to eat all of his dinner first. And for a pea, dinner is... candy.

The illustrations are simple but charming, and the illustrator managed to give personalities to a family of vegetables. My main complaint with this book (and it's really nothing to do with the book itself) is the e-book formatting. The text was one step ahead of the pictures throughout, which I found confusing until I figured out what was going on. So, if you're going to read this one, I'd suggest sticking with the physical version.

[Kelly Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever idea for a story...and well-executed! The text is concise, and the illustrations are adorable. However, we're not a huge fan of the eat-your-supper-and-get-dessert thing in our family, so it's not our favorite. But that's just our own personal hang-up with it. It really is a great little story!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book. Not necessarily the best for a read-aloud with a group, though.

[Chadi Raheb · Rating 4 out of 5]

خر :))

[Ayesha (Seokjin's Version) ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

even though I do NOT like peas, this one was extremely cute.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful little picture-book from Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace, Little Pea combines minimal text and minimal illustrations, achieving the maximum effect in charm and entertainment. Little Pea is a happy youngster, who loves his Papa and Mama Pea, and enjoys playing with his friends. The only discordant element in his life comes at mealtime, when his parents insist that he eat his candy, before he can have a delicious bowl of spinach for dessert...

This charming reversal of the usual mealtime argument involving vegetables, is sure to please young children, who will enjoy all the many sounds of disgust Little Pea makes while being forced to eat FIVE(!) pieces of candy. "Blech," indeed! Jen Corace's illustrations are simple but effective, conveying a sense of motion and feeling. All in all, this strikes me as a book ideally suited for storyhour with young children, and while it may not convince fussy eaters to mend their ways, it will hold up a humorous mirror for their feelings and behavior.

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really fun book to read with my toddler. She definitely appreciates all the noises that accompany the pea eating all the disgusting candy. However, I'm not sure if it's a book that we'll check out again. I know it's playing on the "finish your veggies if you want dessert" style of parenting that a lot of families have, but we don't have that in our home - and the later my daughter realizes that society values food differently (as in some foods are rewards and some are chores), the better.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little pea is forced to eat candy for dinner!

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an adorable book and it’s great fun. I am not convinced that it will actually convert children who don’t like vegetables into vegetable lovers if that’s a goal. It is a cute story though and the illustrations are terrific. The candy sure looks pretty but not that extremely appealing (to me) as none of it is chocolate.

I loved vegetables even as a young child (except for eggplant, green onions, and radishes - I acquired a taste for those three in adulthood) but I would have enjoyed this book then and I really liked it now. This is a fun read aloud book, and the children I know will listen to and look at this story with glee.

[Sadia Mansoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the world of peas, everything is topsy turvy ;)
They have candies for dinner & spinach as a dessert.. Read this to your lil one & show them how the baby pea struggles to eat his 5 candies every night but gobbles down the spinach super fast! For him, the spinach is yum, yum, EXTRA YUM! :D

Here is the story of this adorable pea :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQM9r...

[Marwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

ماذا تتوقع أن تكون التحلية المفضلة لدى حبة البازلاء الصغيرة؟
ليست الحلوى بالتأكيد!

رابط المشاهدة
my link text
ـــــــــــــــــــــ

قراء القصة ينصحون بها للأطفال من سن ثلاث لست سنوات

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfectly cute twist on "eat your vegetables," for the pea is required to eat his candy before he can have spinach for dessert.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and funny!

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

adorable! we have this fight with our toddler every night it seems! haha

[Norah Butchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book with my mom when I was little and I loved it! Cheers to Little Pea!

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story doesn't have much depth, but it's adorable!

[Bethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuteness overload alert - even down to the fun dinnertime twist. Peas are just such adorable main characters!

[Liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minimalistic, and yet immensely packed with visibility for youthful food critics of the 21st century, Little Pea is a voice for vegetable connoisseurs of all kinds. While some may argue that this novel’s dialogue is dangerously similar to the constructs of diet culture, and possibly contains borderline themes of cannibalism, I disagree. Vegetables rock! So does candy! It’s all about balance, baby! I implore you to discover the story of Little Pea ASAP.

[Bandita · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations were cute and adorable but overall I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to.

[nazanin · Rating 4 out of 5]

اینکه بچگی منه! 😮😮🫢🤣🤣

[Linda]

A cute little story about a little pea who is a picky eater.

A short read, but kids might enjoy the flipped eating situation between them and the little pea.


Description: There's trouble at Little Pea's house: he hates eating his dinner...of candy! Still, his parents won't let him have the spinach dessert he loves so much until he does so. Kids, even the ones who don't put up a fuss at the table occasionally (if those even exist), will relish Little Pea. -- Description by Ellen Foreman.

Genre:
Picture books for children

Tone:
Funny

Subject headings:
Peas
Picky eaters
Food habits
Spinach
Desserts
Vegetables

Other Contributors:
Corace, Jen, ill.

Author Characteristics:
Female
United States
American

Accelerated Reader: IL: LG, BL: 1.7, AR Pts: 0.5

School Library Journal:
PreS-Gr 2 –Little Pea is happy. There are many things he likes to do, such as roll down hills and hang out with his friends. There is one thing, though, that he does not like, and that is to eat candy as the main course every night for dinner. He struggles through, reluctantly swallowing not just one piece but five, in order to have his favorite dessert–spinach. This simple story is a twist on the age-old admonishment that children everywhere hear each evening. The ink-and-watercolor illustrations are as spare as the text, featuring a small, yellow-green pea in a loving family. Each uncluttered page has plenty of white space. Picky eaters will enjoy the subtle humor of this topsy-turvy tale.–Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN --Wendy Woodfill (Reviewed May 1, 2005) (School Library Journal, vol 51, issue 5, p95)

Publishers Weekly:
Peas, the oft-reviled legumes that can make dinnertime a battle, take center plate in Rosenthal's (Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life , for adults) silly picture book about food choices—and picky eaters—turned topsy-turvy. Little Pea enjoys an ordinary life with his parents and pea pals playing, reading stories and getting lovingly tucked into bed. But the one thing Little Pea has trouble with is candy, the icky entrée that his parents insist he eat for dinner each night. As Mama and Papa Pea say, "If you want to grow up to be a big strong pea" or have dessert, candy must be eaten. Once Little Pea whines through his required five-piece serving of sweets, he's happy to top off his torture with a special treat—spinach! Young readers will take glee in Little Pea 's absurd yet familiar predicament, while parents will surely identify with Mama and Papa Pea's universal struggle. Newcomer Corace's warmhearted ink-and-watercolor paintings plays up the most of ample white space, which plays up the vibrant greenness of the Pea family. Images of tiny, bouncing peas playing hopscotch, and Papa Pea flipping his boy off the end of a spoon are especially memorable. Kids are likely to view their veggies with new eyes when mealtime rolls around. Ages 3-up. (May) --Staff (Reviewed May 9, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 19, p69)

Kirkus:
/* Starred Review */ A crowd-pleaser in the tradition of Mitchell Sharmat's Gregory, The Terrible Eater (1980), illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, this simply told and illustrated episode features both a decidedly atypical family (all head, no body) facing a familiar dinnertime issue, and a delicious final twist. Little Pea 's generally a happy legume, hanging with friends, rolling down hills and being catapulted off a spoon by Papa Pea—but meals are always fraught, for Little Pea hates candy, which as you know (you didn't?) is all that peas eat. "If you don't finish your candy, you can't have dessert," says Mama Pea. Negotiating his quota down to five cellophane-wrapped pieces, Little Pea proceeds to choke them down—"Three. Plck. Four. Pleh."—then jumps for joy at dessert's arrival—a heaping bowl of spinach. Expect bursts of hilarity from young listeners, picky eaters or no. (Picture book . 3-5) (Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2005)

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[Vijetha Palathoti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Pea, Little Hoot and Little Oink -I read these three adorkable children's books yesterday which adopt the reverse psychology on kids, if it can be called that.

There is a common setup for all the stories. These little ones live with their Mama and Papa, they hate doing something that is expected of them (also, forced on them by their parents) AND love something that kids, more often than not, are stereotyped to hate.

Little Hoot hates to wait for bedtime.

“All my other friends get to go to bed so much earlier than me!
Why do I always have to stay up and play? It’s not fair!”

"If you want to grow up to be a wise owl, you must stay up late,”
said Papa Owl.

Little Oink hates mess up time.

“All my friends get to clean their rooms.
Why can’t I?” asked Little Oink.

“If you want to grow up to be a respectable pig, you must learn how to make a proper mess,” said Papa Pig.

Little Oink spends his play time by tidying his Tree house! :D Such a dork!

Little Pea is where it all started.
Little Pea hates to eat candy for dinner every night.

“If you want to grow up to be a big, strong pea, you have to eat your candy,” Papa Pea would say.

“If you don’t finish your candy then you can’t have dessert,” Mama Pea would say.

But inspite of all the whining, Little Pea would eat Candy every night because he/she loves dessert, SPINACH! (I never understood the deal behind slyly making kids eat Spinach. Ahem. Popeye.)

To end, I think this is a very interesting way to introduce younger readers to reading, of course, but also to voice their opinions, to let them know that it's okay to like something everyone around them might hate and to hold on to what they love inspite of what anyone might have to say about it.

Note: I haven't considered the being a parent side of this yet. Spare my freedom, parents! Let me be the cool aunt.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this one because it came up on my GR recommendations, even though I actively dislike peas.

However the reasons that I did not like this book had little to do with my distaste for peas. In fact, I would rather see them playing in a schoolyard than showing up on my plate.

No, I did not like this book in part because it played to the gender stereotypes of dad a breadwinner and 'fun guy' and mother as stay at home caregiver.

But more so, I disliked the book because of the whole 'you must eat this!' control-freak, borderline abusive messaging. I have never understood why parents force their children to eat something. Little pea seemed healthy and happy, why then force him to eat. This type of eating what you do not want leads to health issues such as obesity. Additionally, teaching children to ignore their own needs and wants and to replace them with those of 'authority figures' makes children very vulnerable to people who would do them harm. What a horrible thing to teach a child, and a message that is given to children largely by parents who themselves are the ones doing their children harm.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son has excellent taste in books. Earlier this summer he picked out Little Pea by Amy Krause Rosenthal. This cute little book about a family of peas has already become a family favorite.

Little Pea, the title character, reminds me a lot of my son. Little Pea every night is forced to eat food he doesn't like (because it's good for him). His exasperated parents ask him to eat five pieces. Little Pea reluctantly does what they ask but pulls the most wonderful faces as he takes his bites. These scenes replay the typical dinner for us. My son is a picky eater and we often times resort to counting out bites to get him to eat.

Little Pea is the second book by Amy Krause Rosenthal that I've read. I was first introduced to her humorous writing through her autobiography: Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. Now that we've enjoyed one of her children's books, I will keep her in mind for future book purchases.