Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure!: Making Good Eating Great Fun! [With 14 Snack Recipe Cards]

I recently purchased three copies of Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure and gave them to local schools' libraries to use as a resource as part of their wellness initiatives to improve student health. The staff loved the books, especially after watching a live presentation of FOODPLAY - an elementary school-aged program promoting healthy eating and staying active!

If you are looking for a resource for kids that puts fun into developing healthy eating habits, look no further! The January 2008 release Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure! by Barbara Storper, MS, RD is a colorful and light-hearted book that shares the importance of eating well. The book is written in a detective case file format from a kid's perspective. Fictional author, Tobe Fit, chronicles the eating habits of her best friend, Janey Junkfood (JJ for short, though her friend thinks JJ stands for "Janey the Juggler") and how all of the sugar she consumes is hurting her chances of making the Junior National Juggling Team. Tobe knows the importance of eating colorful, healthy foods - she just has to convince Janey that fruits and veggies are as fun and easy to enjoy as junk is, with better results! The combination of hand-written notes, typed up reports and silly kid-style sketches and illustrated photos make the book fun for kids to pick up and flip through. The content is fact-filled and honest, but the fluffy, fun presentation makes it kid-friendly and puts the information in an easy-to-digest (pun intended) scenario. Kids are sure to enjoy it and ask to read it more than once. As an added bonus, cut-out healthy recipe cards ("Tickets to FRESH Adventures!") enable readers to apply Tobe's fun snack lessons to their own lives. There's even a pocket in the back of the book to store the tickets once you've cut out the pages from the book. I'd suggest this book for parent-child sharing when kids are between kindergarten - second grade (even younger if the format doesn't overwhelm the child). Book sharing between parents and children goes a LONG way. There are some fairly decent vocabulary words and concepts that could use some decoding ("investigate" and "situation" aren't typical words for the younger crowd to read!) discussing if kids aren't familiar with them ("nationals" and some of the mock newspaper articles and factual reports). Beyond that, kids can dive in and read it on their own or with friends. Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure! would be a fun book to share with small groups in a classroom setting during a nutritional unit. I'm sure physical education teachers would get rave reviews from their students for integrating parts of it into their lessons (you don't need to read the entire book to get the message across)! It is great for kids to see how books and literacy really do fit into ALL areas of their lives. Books DO have a place in physical education!

Reviewed by Brianne Plach (age 10) for Reader Views (3/08) Do you want to eat better? Do you find yourself always wanting junk food even if you know it's not good for you? Maybe you just want to get to know more about better food choices. If you do and don't want to read about how to diet or want a book that stresses dieting, you need to pick up "Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure!" Janey and her dog Tobi, which is pronounced `to be,' are your guides throughout the book. They go through an average day and explain what choices are available to you. Not skipping breakfast is stressed. You might think you will lose weight or be healthier by skipping it, but it's simply not true. If you skip breakfast, you are skipping nutrition that will be used through your whole day. This book is very easy to read and is a fun book without sounding preachy or too technical for kids to understand. The pictures by Frances Schneid are awesome! They are bright and colorful. The ones that look like photos in a scrapbook are so funny and just add to the delight of this book. I think kids of all ages will enjoy this book and learn a lot about nutrition while having a lot of fun. In my opinion, the ideal audience would be kids in grades 2-6 but this could definitely prove to be enjoyable for kids outside those ranges. I wish Barbara Storper and Frances E. Schneid combine their talents together for more great books about issues that are important for kids to understand! One taste of "Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure!" and you won't be satisfied till you are done indulging in the pages of the whole book!

I have just finished reading this book and I can't wait until my granddaughter is old enough to understand the FABULOUS lessons Janey shares.(She's only 10 months and just starting on leafy greens....) The illustrations add to the fun reading the book. Janey rocks! Children of every age, (up to 99!) can benefit from this "Fresh Adventure". It makes learning easy.

Drawing upon her more than 25 years of experience turning kids onto to healthy eating habits, Barbara Storper (Founder and Director of FoodPlay Productions) wrote "Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure" because the average American boy or girl consumes more than 150 pounds of sugar a year (with one-third of it coming from soft drinks), while only one percent of American children eat the recommended servings of fruits, vegetables, calcium-rich foods and whole grains. Then there is the acknowledge problem of childhood obesity which is doubling among children and tripling among teens -- who in turn are also seeing an increase in eating disorders. Energetically illustrated by Frances E. Schneid and presented in a scrapbook-style layout, "Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure" will help children (and help the parents of those children) to understand that for reasons of health and well-being, children of all ages must break their junk food habits and addictions, while developing an attitude that good eating is also good fun with great taste. Simply stated, "Janey Junkfood's Fresh Adventure" should be a part of every school and community library collection in the country!