The Gulps
PreSchool-Grade 2—A paean to healthful eating and physical fitness. Sadly, too many youngsters resemble the overweight Gulps, who are undeniably human, despite Brown's signature bunny ears. The family is headed for a theme park in their RV filled with televisions and junk food. When the vehicle breaks down, the youngest child recognizes that it is overloaded. The only trim person in the family, Dawn enjoys vegetables and is in heaven when a neighborly man, Farmer Spratt, invites them into his home. However, the others are miserable; their bodies prevent them from doing even the simplest tasks. While these couch potatoes welcome an outing to a county fair with deep-fried treats, the reality of their physical condition hits home. A dance platform and a wagon collapse under their weight, and the waterslide must close after they get stuck. Redemption for the Gulps comes in the form of exercise and sensible eating with vacation plans switched to a hike up "Mount Dauntless." Brown's busily patterned cartoons in confectionery colors with cotton-candy clouds humorously depict the rotund characters in this tongue-in-cheek tale. For group sharing where obvious parallels could prove hurtful to an overweight child, consider Bernard Waber's equally humorous and more subtleFast Food! Gulp! Gulp!(Houghton, 2001).—Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.