Good Egg and Bad Apple

By Henry Herz

I know that I am guilty of some pun-ishing plays on words when I talk about food, but I just get so excited!

Fortunately, it appears I am not alone.

In fact, I have just found a food-focused children’s book that revels in ridiculous wordplay.

Good Egg and Bad Apple is a delightful (if linguistically tortured) story of the title characters and their adventures in the pantry. Whether stalking celery, crying over spilt milk (actually half and half), or giving a zucchini a “veggie wedgie” with plastic wrap, Bad Apple shows that he is rotten to the core and relies on Good Egg to explain that he has been teased and bullied and so is reticent to play nicely.

By book’s end, the two have become friends and everything goes smoothie (I mean smoothly).

There is even an index of idioms to help readers enter into this linguistic labyrinth that, for some, lasts a lifetime.

So if you are feeling a bit scrambled and do not want to run off half-baked, take some time with this happy story and your salad days will soon return.

(www.schifferbooks.com)