In My Dreams, It Rains Coffee

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Written by Judi Barrett & Illustrated by Ronald Barrett
Age Level: 4-8 Years
Published August 1978

I hope there’s pizza in the forecast.

If you can measure the amount of time that’s passed since you last read this book in decades, then you need to read it again.

Growing up, did you have a parent or grandparent that was incredible at making up stories? In this classic, a grandfather tells an enthralling tall tale about a land called Chewandswallow where the weather provides all the meals. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, townspeople simply grab their dishes and cutlery, then go stand outside and let the skies supply their food and drink. Everything is jolly and delicious, until the weather began to change and intensify, to the point where people’s meals weren’t only disrupted, but the food storms were becoming dangerous.

“After a brief shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs moved in followed by pieces of toast. Butter and jelly sprinkled down for the toast. And most of the time it rained milk afterwards.”

When did “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” become an allegory for the dangers of climate change?! This book, which was always completely captivating to me as a child, turns out was also a prophecy about the world I would live in as an adult. Hopefully, we won’t have to abandon Earth the way the townspeople flee Chewandswallow, but it’s a crazy coincidence!