Just Try It!

December 15, 2023
With one taste of despised mustard, a child pivots from rejecting new foods to seeking them. Dad takes Lil to a food truck festival. Lil, who narrates the story, is nervous; this child's list of acceptable foods is short (pizza, rice, grilled cheese, french fries, and vanilla ice cream). Dad loves varied tastes and repeatedly reminds Lil of his rule: "Just try it!" With a "YECCCH!" or an "EWWWWWW!" Lil refuses a bagel loaded with toppings, linguini with clams, Peking duck, pizza with spinach and garlic, and a pretzel covered with Lil's most hated of foods: mustard. Frustrated, Lil accidentally knocks the pretzel onto Dad's shirt. Lil apologizes, takes a lick of mustard...and instantly learns to appreciate every rejected offering. Lil then uses the title mantra to pressure Dad onto a nausea-inducing roller-coaster ride. Bright, cartoon-style illustrations emphasize the pair's upbeat mood. Food neophobia, or an aversion to eating anything novel, has complex psychosocial roots. But in this blithe little fable, the child's resistance is completely overcome with a single accidental exposure, and the formerly picky eater immediately becomes a novelty seeker. The turnaround here is implausible; if this book creates any expectations of a sudden dramatic change in a child's behavior, that would be a disservice. Both Dad and Lil are light-skinned. Amusing but misleading on the nutritional and behavioral fronts. (Picture book. 4-8)

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February 1, 2024
Preschool-Grade 2 Parents of picky eaters will appreciate the message of Phil and Lily Rosenthal's Just Try It! Young readers may be less excited about the imperative to try new foods, but those who ""taste"" this book may well find it delicious. In the story, Lil's dad, Phil, likes to try new foods, but Lil prefers to stick to her tried-and-true favorites, despite her father's rule to ""just try it!"" At a food truck festival, Lil refuses to sample a variety of foods ranging from clams to Peking duck to vegetable pizza. Finally, she discovers that she does in fact like the mustard on a hot pretzel. This discovery leads her to courageously try--and find joy in--the foods she had previously rejected. In the end, Lil turns the tables on her father, insisting that he ""just try"" a roller coaster with her. The upbeat, graphic novel-style illustrations by Flowers, complete with speech bubbles, are a perfect fit for the setting and bring energy and humor to the story. A book that's well worth sampling.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 18, 2024

K-Gr 3-This is pretty expected fare. Lil, a blond girl, and Phil, a grinning stand-in for the real Rosenthal, approach a food truck festival. They have wildly different sensibilities; Lil loves standard-issue kids' food, and her father is up for everything. "Just try it!" he admonishes. An everything bagel opens the journey, then linguine with clams, duck with plum sauce and scallions. "No way! No way! No way!" Lil pleads, finally landing on pizza, which she loves. Her father ruins that, too, with garlic and spinach. Stuck with the mustard-covered pretzel while Phil goes off to clean his shirt, Lil is intrigued enough to try it. And likes it. She leverages that brave moment into forcing her father on to the roller-coaster. This is all silly but meant in good fun, and every child will relate to it. The illustrations are cartoon-style, and bigger-than-life, but in the end, this is a charming father-daughter tale of overcoming fears. VERDICT High spirits will pull readers into the adventure, and aspiring foodies will love to see one of their heroes on display.-Ginnie Abbott

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