Review – The Boy Who Ate America by Nathan Smith Jones

While sitting at the pc scrolling through my BookSirens email, I heard a voice behind me saying “that sounds interesting, how could a boy eat a country?”

On the basis of Youngest’s interest, I downloaded The Boy Who Ate America by Nathan Smith Jones.  Noting that it was only a handful of pages long we decided to read it straight away.  Taking turns we read sections aloud and questioned the boy’s motivation and ability to eat buildings.

 We liked the rhyming and for the most part it flowed, however we both questioned the jump from eating a seat to eating cars.  For some reason that jarred and took us out of the story.  Moving on we smiled and laughed at the extraordinary lengths that the boy went to try to satisfy an appetite that was seemingly insatiable.

We both loved the illustrations which had a sepia tone feel.  My favourite scene was of people inside the boy

all of the people in his stomach complained that being down in his insides was really a pain!

The Boy Who Ate America is a parable

The child hungered for something and thought that eating more would fill him up.  It took him a while but eventually he realised that the things he was currently consuming would not quench his appetite. His mother reminded him of God’s word and that was what finally satisfied him.

Perfect on one level as an entertaining read with discussion points, and a great introduction to younger children on the importance of knowing what you are hungering for and how God can fulfil all our needs

My thanks to the author and BookSiren’s for a digital copy in exchange for a candid review.

3 Stars – Liked It