Seriously, You Have to Eat

K-Gr 2—While Mansbach is keenly aware of the common disagreements that occur between parents and children, his point of view is purely adult. Like his earlier picture book about going to sleep—a juvenile version of his irreverent adult book—this mealtime plea is appropriately sanitized for the intended audience. Unfortunately, Mansbach's talents do not shine when the author employs spanking clean language, and in addition to maintaining an obviously grown-up perspective, his rhyming is bland, awkward, and forced. "Oh, now you're hungry? Tough luck, kitchen's closed./Have some warm milk. For me a drink that smells like peat./Pancakes? Yeah, right. It's bedtime, child,/It's way, way too late now to eat." Children of different ethnicities are shown throughout, which does suggest that eating issues are universal, and an array of cute animals are presented to contrast their reliable feeding traits with the habits of the more obstinate kids. The illustrations are humorous, and some children may giggle in recognizing their own mealtime behavior. But the chuckles are more likely to come from those weary parents who face this particular daily struggle.