Pinkalicioius

Pinkalicious

Written by: Victoria Kann & Elizabeth Kann

Illustrated by: Victoria Kann

Age Group: 1st Grade

Published: 2006

The book Pinkalicious is about a little girl who on a rainy day decides to make pink cupcakes with her mother. When they were done, she didn't just have one, she kept on eating them and stopped listening to her parents. The next morning she wakes up and she is ALL pink. Her parents tried washing it off her, but it wasn't working so they took her to the doctor and the doctor said she had an acute case of Pinkititis. The doctor told her that for the next week, she is not allowed to eat anything that has pink in it.  On her way home she was in a garden and getting attacked by animals and insects because she was blending in with the flowers. Despite of what the doctors and her parents were saying, she got another cupcake and the next morning she woke up and she was all red. From there on she decided to only eat green things and the next morning she was normal. The dad asks where the last cupcake went and the brother peeks around the corner all pink and says "Pink-A-Boo".

This book has a great meaning for kids to know that they cannot only eat one thing, they have to have a balanced diet. Even though kids know that they will not turn a certain color because of the foods they eat, it gives them a "hidden" message that they won't forget deep down. This book is very similar to the "A Bad Case of Stripes". In both books the child eats a certain amount of food, and has a bad reaction to it. The impression of the book though that I don't like, is that in the end she is told he has to eat green food to be better. To children I don't want to give them an impression that eating food that is good for  you is a chore, they should want to eat it and know that it is good for you.

I absolutely love the pictures in this book. They are a little cartoonish, so some students might not enjoy them, but I think that are great. Some of the things in the picture are oversized. At one part of the book the mother is talking on the phone, and the phone is like double the size of her mothers head, so some of the pictures give a unrealistic size of objects around the house. My favorite picture is when the little girl is at the doctor getting her check up, and the doctor tells her the food items that she cannot have. In that picture, they show the objects and put an "X" through them so the reader knows that they are not suppose to eat those. It gives a great illustration for understand all the food she can't have and not just naming one things. 

I would recommend this book for girls, I fee like boys would enjoy it. Even the title and front cover of the book is centered about a little girl dressed in a big pink dress with sparkles. The font on the front cover is also very girly and something boys probably wouldn't enjoy. I would definitely have this book as an optional reading in my classroom.