  | League of picky eaters Author: Lucianovic, Stephanie V. W. | |
| Price: $21.88 | ||
Summary:
In Muffuletta, being good at eating is the key to success. French fries and grilled cheese? Beginner food! Haggis and truffles? Delicacies! After failing a school eating test, picky eater Minerva is placed in the lowest eating track of all: Remedial Eating to Change Habits. RETCH has kids with weird personalities and even weirder food preferences. But when Minerva's best friends in the Gifted and Gourmet class no longer speak to her, she and other picky eaters learn to stand up for themselves.
Reviews:
School Library Journal (10/01/21)
Booklist (10/01/21)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 10/01/2021 Lucianovic puts a delicious spin on the familiar “middle-schooler learns to own a personal difference rather than be humiliated by it” theme. In the town of Muffuletta, founded by chefs and gourmets, the curriculum at the St. Julia Child Elementary and Middle School is entirely food-centric. An excellent student except in Eating, where she earns grades of “Picky, Minerva is devastated to find herself starting sixth grade in the Remedial Eating to Change Habits (RETCH) class. Hardly has clueless teacher Mr. Kreplach dished out the first assignment than she finds herself bonding with her classmates in schemes to derail the dietary indoctrination, and even invited by them to join the titular secret club, which has been in existence for generations. There’s a roux of sophistication in some of the culinary humor that the story’s characters and conflicts lack, but Minerva’s final triumphant acceptance of her sensitivity to taste and texture as a kind of superpower (as well as the tart verbal smackdown she delivers to a faux friend) will leave readers replete. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 10/01/2021 Gr 4–6—In a society where consuming varieties of food in healthy quantities is a highly prized skill, Minerva's picky eating practices set her apart, and not in a good way. After performing poorly in her "eating placement test" at St. Julia Child Elementary and Middle School, she is assigned to a class for Remedial Eaters, filled with unpopular kids like Alice Who Only Eats White Food and Ralph, who disrupts classes by making vomit-like noises. The group of outcasts, though, turn out to be members of the League of Picky Eaters, with cool strategies for avoiding foods and fooling teachers that help kids like Minerva make it through school. She learns to appreciate her own uniqueness and that of her new friends, ultimately standing up for the virtues of pickiness in ways that instigate real change. The premise of elevating eating habits to a crucial social measurement is established early and maintained with cleverness and consistency. For instance, the class must take part in food immersion therapy ("Be one with the Brussels Sprouts"), and similes and other comparisons are often food-related. Some plot elements, which include the mystery of how the League was founded and Minerva's realization that she might actually be a "supertaster," are not especially compelling, but the food-based interactions between Minerva and her new friends versus a variety of antagonistic classmates and teachers are often entertaining and amusing. VERDICT A mostly successful blend of satirical humor within a solid story of friendship.—Steven Engelfried, Wilsonville P.L., OR - Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
