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Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

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Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Please Pass The Poems

Yelling "food fight!" in the lunchroom can suddenly change peas into missiles and forks into catapults. But this Food Fight is not about wasting food. The delicious collection of 39 poems, published by Harcourt Brace and delivered to bookstores this month, is about fighting hunger.

Millions of Americans, including 1 in 12 kids, do not get enough to eat. Author-illustrator Michael Rosen decided to help by asking some fellow authors to write poems about--what else?--food. Food Fight costs $17. Most of the money from the sales will help feed the hungry.

The authors cooked up a poetry feast: pumpkin seeds roast on a Halloween night, and blackberries are plucked from summer bushes. Poet Jack Prelutsky concocts "A pizza too massive to pick up and toss/ a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce."

Remembering their childhood helped the authors pick the right ingredients for the poems. Anne Lemieux wrote "Roast Beast six brothers, dinners were creative!"

Share Our Strength, a group that fights hunger around the world, will donate money from the book to buy food and help schools pay for nutritious meals. Rosen hopes kids will remember the book as they grow up: "Nutrition issues are vivid for kids."

Rosen, who illustrated the book, calls it a "celebration of food." And while no potatoes are flung in this food fight, helping the hungry can be just as much fun. As J. Patrick Lewis writes in the opening poem, "The word about good food is out/ No one should have to do without."

Next: Top 5 Halloween Treats