The Cafeteria Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, Illustrations by Jared Lee

The Cafeteria Lady from the Black Lagoon is certainly a kid pleaser. Mike Thaler's signature humor has just the sort of silliness that they love, and Jared Lee's artwork-- which has just the right sort of gross -- compliments his text wonderfully.

The story is about the arrival of a new cafeteria lady, whose name happens to be Wanda Belch. Her arrival is announced and pretty soon rumors are flying and the kids' imaginations get out of hand with them imaging all sorts of horrible things. Mike Thaler uses these rumors to convey the jokes and a subtle message about the nature of rumors.

For Example:

All the kids say that Wanda uses natural ingredients
in her dishes... (like) organic rats in her ratatouille...

Talking Points :::
"The Cafeteria Lady from the Black Lagoon" is a great spoof of the all things 'cafeteria'. Written at the second grade level it falls into the category of what I call 'motivational reading'. Which is to say that kids find it an enjoyable, quick read that motivates them to read more.

I like that this story isn't just empty calories. It packs an important message that rumors can be hurtful and erroneous.

Very young children might not 'get' the humor, and adults might want to consider whether making fun of school is a right message for the Kindergarten and under crowd. Certainly, I didn't start sharing this series my kids until after they both knew what school was really like.

Pam
Somewhere in the X-burbs