✦Judi Barrett · Reading companion
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Read your copy and explore an imaginary rule, its consequences, and clues in the illustrations.
A book to read together
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Original prompts to use with your copy.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. Bring a family or library copy of the book and use these original Curiosi prompts to explore imaginative rules and their consequences. This guide discusses the picture book; the activities invent a different world of their own.
Start with an everyday rule
Before reading, name something ordinary you expect from the weather. Then invent a harmless change, such as clouds that drift in square shapes. Ask what a person might notice first. Look at the book’s cover and title, and invite a question about the imaginary world without deciding how its events will unfold.
Look for a consequence
As you read your copy, pause when the child notices one event affecting another. Ask what happened, what may have caused it, and which detail supports that connection. Look closely at the illustration for an extra clue. A reader can suggest more than one explanation and check the next page before deciding.
Notice scale and point of view
After reading, choose a picture to examine again. Ask how size, distance, or the arrangement of objects changes its effect. Which detail seems funny, surprising, or worrying to the child? Compare what one person in that scene might notice with what the reader can see. Keep the discussion focused on your copy rather than retelling every event.
Draw a different imaginary forecast
Invent a world where soft ribbons float through the air for one hour each afternoon. Draw a forecast and a scene showing how people adapt. Would they collect the ribbons, make a shaded resting place, or change a game? Add an unexpected consequence, then explain how it follows from the rule you chose. Keep your idea distinct from the book’s world.
Your turn to read
Keep the conversation going
There is no single right answer. Invite young readers to notice, wonder and imagine.
Which detail connected a cause with an effect?
How did the size of something change the picture’s mood?
What consequence followed from your invented rule?
Make something: Draw three boxes for your invented world: the rule, one result, and a response. Ask a partner whether the connection between the boxes is clear.
