No Ordinary Apple: A Story About Eating Mindfully

K-Gr 2—No Ordinary Apple guides readers through an eating experience unlike our everyday food encounters. When Elliot arrives at his neighbor's house after school, he looks for a snack. When offered an apple, he responds, a bit dramatically in words and illustration, "An apple! Don't you have any candy?" Carmen, his neighbor, then guides him through eating an apple using all of his senses. For example, he sees that red apples aren't just red but red, green, and a little brown, he feels that they aren't smooth but a bit bumpy, and when rolling a piece around in his mouth he gets slightly different tastes in different areas of his mouth. The book concludes with an encouragement to try mindful eating, using all of your senses, with other foods. Illustrations are bold and colorful and the combination of text and illustration provides an overall effect of enthusiasm for the topic. This would be a fun book to share with a class in the fall-give the students apples and let them try it.—Stephanie Farnlacher, Trace Crossings Elementary School, Hoover, AL