Title: Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know about Fast Food
Author: Eric Schlosser, Charles Wilson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Genre: Children’s nonfiction, food
Age level: 9-12
Themes: Knowledge about fast food, how to recognize unhealthy foods, knowing where our food comes from
Synopsis: If you took the 13 billion hamburgers that Americans eat every year and put them in a straight line, they could circle the earth more than thirty-two times. A single fast-food hamburger may contain meat from hundreds, even thousands, of different cattle. One out of every five public schools in the United States now serves brand-name fast food. One out of every three toys given to a child in the United States each year is from a fast-food restaurant. Americans now spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, and recorded music- combined. A child of ten who is diagnosed with Type II diabetes can expect to love seventeen to twenty-six years of his or her life. Overweight teenagers today are having surgery to make their stomachs smaller. They are also having heart attacks.
Synopsis: If you took the 13 billion hamburgers that Americans eat every year and put them in a straight line, they could circle the earth more than thirty-two times. A single fast-food hamburger may contain meat from hundreds, even thousands, of different cattle. One out of every five public schools in the United States now serves brand-name fast food. One out of every three toys given to a child in the United States each year is from a fast-food restaurant. Americans now spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, and recorded music- combined. A child of ten who is diagnosed with Type II diabetes can expect to love seventeen to twenty-six years of his or her life. Overweight teenagers today are having surgery to make their stomachs smaller. They are also having heart attacks.
About the author: Eric Schlosser has investigated the fast-food industry for years. he has received a number of journalism prizes for his writing and he has written for many publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker. His book for adults about fast food, Fast Food Nation, was a New York Times bestseller. His favorite meal is French fries, a cheeseburger, and a chocolate shake.
Charles Wilson grew up in West Virginia and has written for several newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He has worked on the staffs of The New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, and has rounded up beef cattle on horseback at his uncle’s ranch.
Pre-reading activities: After asking the students how often they eat fast food in a week, they will keep a food journal while they read through the book and for a whole month, writing down everything they eat and drink.
Post-reading activities: Students will list ways to be healthier after reading this book, such as cutting back on fast food (having it every so often as a treat), taking a walk outside or going to the park, walking the dog, etc. They will revisit their food journal and write down healthier alternatives for what is already listed.
Reflection: I thought this book made a lot of good points, especially since the fast-food issue is huge in our society today. It makes the reader think twice about what they’re eating, and think about some healthier choices they could make. Just the inside flap made me want to give up eating fast food, since it had some statistics about what fast-food is doing to our bodies and our health.
Works Cited:
No comments:
Post a Comment