Title: The Adventures of Tommy The Tomato

Posted in Book Reviews
by Lorain County Moms

Author: Jay Holt

Illustrator: Omar Aria Setiawan

J.R. Holt Publishing Co./$9.95

So my daughter and I have been toting this book around in our book bag for a couple weeks. We keep intending to read it, but just never found the time given the reading requirements for school each night.

But boy, am I glad we finally pulled it while waiting for gymnastics class to start.

Not only did the book educate me — it talks about some fruits and vegetables totally foreign to me (Ugli fruit, anyone?) — but it had my daughter and I giggling as we read about how the fruits and vegetables provide vitamins to help ward off colds and whatnot. OK, so that doesn’t sound too funny, but it was really — after all, what little kid doesn’t love the challenge of trying to remember silly names for every letter of the alphabet? There’s April the Asparagus, Gary the Garlic, Mimi Milk and so forth — you get the picture.

So aside from the nutritional nuggets the book passes along, it also helped my 5-year-old with her alphabet and memory retention as we went through page after page and read about the foibles of the silly tomato and his pals.

And, considering she’s asked to read it a couple times since, I’d say the author figured out a way to be just about perfect in capturing the imagination of the little folks.

–Julie Wallace, The Chronicle-Telegram