The Hungry Thing

This book is absolutely the best childrens book. I have had my name on a list at another book store for two years and they kept telling me it was out of print. I decided to look here and voila I see it. I am ordering eight copies to give to each of my grown children (and one for grandpa to keep for when the grandchildren come to visit) so they can read it to their children.

This is one of the few books I distinctly remember from my childhood. I remember running around the house yelling "Feed me! I'm the Hungry Thing!" Now, more than 30 years later, I'm pleased to see the book is still in print, because I want to read it to my 4-month-old son. It's a great book for all ages.

I am so disappointed that "The Hungry Thing" series is out of print. As an early childhood professional, I used it all the time to develop "phonemic awareness" with little folks. They had such a great time guessing the foods & making up some new ones for the character. My old copies are threadbare; I would love some "fresh" ones.

Our kids adored "The Hungry Thing" and many years later we still quote from it, "Shmancakes sound like..." Now it's our grandchildren who want to hear about this endearing hungry creature with his sign that says "Feed me," and his wildly varied, mispronounced and mysterious cravings. Read it aloud with lots of emphasis and enthusiasm, and soon young listeners will recite the whole thing with you.

The hungry thing comes into town with a sign that says "Feed Me." The problem is that he wants tickles and no one can figure out what to offer him until one little boy says that 'tickles' sound like 'pickles' to him. As a first grade teacher I read "The Hungry Thing" several times during the year. We then play around with sounds in other words. This helps develop phonemic awareness (awareness of the individual sounds in a word), an essential skill for beginning readers