A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words About Food

Shabazz Larkin

Description

"Readers and eaters are taken on a comical romp through the world of food using poetry and a visual feast of photographs enhanced with playful doodles."

— 2015 American Library Association Notable Children's Book  

Where there is food, there will be laughter (and crumbs).
In more than 40 exuberant poems and "vandalized" photographs, you’ll meet a city kid who fantasizes about farming on a stoop, a girl with crumpets and crêpes in her head, and a boy with a pet cabbage. "Doctor Food" prescribes good food as medicine and "Dancing Kitchen" will have you shimmying with your skillet. From the amuse-bouche to the very last pea on the plate, A Moose Boosh celebrates food—growing it, making it, slurping it and especially sharing it with loved ones at the dinner table. Bon appétit!
Poetry is food for the soul, food is poetry for the tongue.

Food writer Michael Pollan calls A Moose Boosh a "very funny book" while Kirkus Reviews says it is "a kid-friendly companion to Michael Pollan's Food Rules." The American Library Association named the book a 2015 Notable Children's Book and says "Readers and eaters are taken on a comical romp through the world of food using poetry and a visual feast of photographs enhanced with playful doodles."

Shabazz Larkin made his author/illustrator debut with A Moose Boosh. He made his picture book illustration debut with Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table. Both titles were selected as American Library Association Notable Children's Books. Shabazz also wrote and illustrated The Thing About Bees: A Love Letter, named among "Best Picture Books 2019" by School Library Journal. He lives in Nashville with his wife and two sons. 

A Desk Is Not A Dinner Table
You can eat dinner
at a round table
or a square table.
An oblong table
or a pear-shaped table.

But a desk,
is not a dinner table.

You can eat dinner at the beach
or eat it on a boat.
Eat with a bikini
or eat in a coat.
Eat upstairs.
Eat outside.
Eat feeling fat
or feeling thinner.

But a desk? No.
A desk is not a place for dinner.

Call it “food in face.”
Call it “stuffing belly.”
Call it the internet
with toast and jelly.

Dinner at a desk
needs a re-label.
Because a desk,
will never be a dinner table.

Sujets

• Humorous
• Juvenile Nonfiction
• Humor
• National Poetry Month
• Gardening
• Food
• Cooking
• African American
• Poetry
• Farmer

Informations

• Publié par: Readers to Eaters
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780998047751
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 12 Mo

Extrait

To my big brother who
inspired me to be a poet.
To my loving wife who
listens to my every poem.

—Shabazz

Text and illustrations copyright
© 2014 by Eric-Shabazz Larkin

READERS to EATERS Books
12437 SE 26th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005
ReadersToEaters.com
Distributed by Publishers Group West

All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information
retrieval system in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the written permission of the publisher. Printed in the USA by Worzalla, Stevens Point, WI (7/14)

Book design by Red Herring Design
Book production by The Kids at Our House

The artwork started with photographs taken by Larkin, who then
added a layer of doodles with white paint, digitally rendered.

All my friends, family, neighbors and coworkers who appear in these photos are the champions of this book.
Every picture was taken on the streets of New York City where I play, in the homes of my faith community
where I pray, or in Virginia where my family lives and feeds me. Thank you. Special thanks to Ashley Larkin,
my wife, who helped me produce every photo in this book. — E.-S. L.

The text is set in Avenir, designed in 1988 by Adrian Frutiger. The word avenir means “future” in French.
While Frutiger based his design on historical geometric sans-serif fonts like Futura, he introduced
nuances that make Avenir more organic, legible, and suited to modern typographic needs.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014944375
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-5-9
EISBN: 978-0-9980477-5-1
A Moose Boosh
... 6

My Father
Is a Painter
.......... 9

Sushi
.................. 11
You should look at
your food. It should
not look at you.

A Desk Is Not a
Dinner Table
......13

Bread Dreams
.... 17

Old George
Washington
Carver
................ 19
Didn’t invent
peanut butter

Corn &
COB
.... 20

What did the corn
say to the cob?

Secret Meat
22
Runaway Beans
25
Booster
26
Meat is no treat to the ones you eat
I Am a Farmer
28
Ashley Won’t Eat It If She Can’t Spell It
30
If you only ate the things you can spell, you’d eat a lot less
Slippery Noodles
32
Odd Diet Food
34
Dear Michelle Obama
36
Hungry
39
The Saddest Happiest Meal
41
If fast food could talk, it would probably
ask you to slow down
Would You Eat Green Eggs With Dye?
44
Doctor Food
46
.... 42
Hot Soup
49
Bare Cupboards
.......................................... 51

If I Had My Own Cooking Show
52
Selfish Shelbi
54
Pet Cabbage
55
Keep a close eye on your produce
Gramma’s Magic Recipes
59
Lab-Coat Corn
60
No More Beets
63
In case people don’t fully understand how much you hate beets
The Indifferent Plate
65
Dinner Party
67
Best with food
Food Doesn’t Grow in Packages
69
Family Chitterlings
71
Stop Touching My Food
72

Do It for Dr. King
.......74

I Didn’t Steal
Your Mangos
...............76
.... 79
A desert with a subway stop

Long Bone
......... 80
Why Ruby Loo
Drooped When
She Pooped
..... 83
A cautionary tale about
not saving room for
dessert

Chaz and the
$100 Apple
....... 85

Mr. Pace Said
the Longest
Grace
................. 88

Dancing
Kitchen
............. 91
The Last Pea
..... 92

....96

A delectable
author’s note
So I said, “Sorry, sir, I did not order this…
this most peculiar dish.”

“No,” the waiter said. “It’s an amuse-bouche ,
compliments of the chef.”

“Ah, well, that’s very nice. So what’s the compliment?”

“No, there is no compliment, just this tiny little dish.”

“But I told you already that I did not order this.”

“No, what I’m trying to say is that this is the chef’s gift.”

“Oh, I understand. My apology.
I just have one more question.
I don’t mean to push,
but did you call this a Moose Boosh?”

“No, sir, it’s a French word, a bit abstruse.
It’s an amuse-bouche. And tasty, too.”

6
My father is a painter,
but he doesn’t use a brush.
My plate is his canvas,
the colors are so lush.

Purple cabbage and red kimchi,
yellow curry and green kale.
The tastes are the brushstrokes
that tell their own tale.

There’s tart and nutty.
There’s bitter and spicy.
There’s savory and minty.
There’s sour and dicey.

My father is a painter,
but he doesn’t use a brush.
This meal is a masterpiece
I wouldn’t dare rush.

9
Sushi is made with raw fish.
That means, it’s fish that
hasn’t been cooked.

But I think it might be too raw
because everywhere I looked,
it looked.

11
You can eat dinner
at a round table
or a square table.
An oblong table
or a pear-shaped table.

But a desk
is not a dinner table.

You can eat dinner at the beach
or eat it on a boat.
Eat it in a bikini
or eat it in a coat.
Eat it upstairs.
Eat it outside.
Eat it feeling fat
or feeling thinner.

But a desk? No.
A desk is not a place for dinner.

Call it “food in face.”
Call it “stuffing belly.”
Call it the Internet
with toast and jelly.

Dinner at a desk
needs a re-label.
Because a desk
will never be a dinner table.

13