How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans by David LaRochelle (review)

Martha's parents may love green beans, but Martha does not: "Green beans are bad. Very bad." No one realizes just how bad those beans can be, though, until the day a green bean gang saunters into town: they terrorize old ladies and teachers and kidnap Martha's parents, holding them hostage. When Martha threatens to eat the wrongdoers, the head bean calls her bluff: "'You will not eat us,' he said with an evil sneer. 'You have never eaten a green bean in your life.'" Martha makes good on her threat, however, and soon puts the beans in their place—in her stomach. Her grateful parents never again serve green beans at meals, preferring to stick to "broccoli or corn on the cob or a nice leafy salad. Everyone knows that there is nothing bad about a nice leafy salad." The melodramatic humor of this silly story will tickle kids' funny bones, and youngsters who side with Martha's views on green beans (or other vegetables) will be particularly satisfied to see their anti-veggie stance justified here. LaRochelle's text is both picturesque and succinct, a tasty treat to read aloud. Fearing's digitally rendered art is drolly comic; his figures' dynamic facial expressions and body positions reflect the story's goofy, exaggerated tone. Diminutive, ginger-haired Martha stands out among the more muted tones of the background; the stubble-faced, mustachioed, villainous beans are worthy, if lanky, adversaries, and viewers will certainly giggle at the couple of leafy greens peering menacingly from the salad bowl in book's closing spread. Pair this with Speed's Brave Potatoes (BCCB 6/00) for a contrasting view of veggies, one terrible, the other triumphant.