Title: A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words About Food
Author: Erik-Shabazz Larkin
Date: Readers to Eaters; 2014
Poetry

I don’t think anyone actually plays with their food in A Moose Boosh. There is a young person with a pet cabbage that disappears but, no one sits and plays with the food in their plate. A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words About Food uses the catchy phrase “where there is food, there will be laughter (and crumbs)”. I can’t simply call this a book of poems when it’s actually a creative print project that combines photos, graphics and poems to deliver rather political statements about the food (and pseudo-food) that we ingest. Through these antics, author Eric-Shabazz Larkin celebrates food as a source of nutrition, comfort and family ties. While the plate is indifferent to what it serves, Harlem suffers as a food desert and it’s not easy to eat with braces. While food is a valued commodity, we don’t have to like all of it, particularly chitterlings or beets.

No More Beets
I’d sooner lick the plate
than eat more beets.
I’d sooner kiss the dog
than eat more beets.
I’d rake the lawn
and clean the gutters
for our whole street.
I’d sooner do anything
than eat more beets.

What is a moose boosh? Pick up Buy the book and look inside the cover. (hint: Try use your French.) This delightful book would be an excellent addition to classroom libraries, particularly those that learn about the food cycle, gardening, urban poverty or food issues or with students who enjoy humorous poetry.

I received my copy of the book at ALA Midwinter from publisher of Readers to Eaters, Philip Lee. Readers to Eaters was founded in 2009 “to promote food literacy from the ground up. We want children and families to have a better understanding of what and how we eat.” source
A Moose Boosh is a delightful volume of poems and images that gets young people to think serious about food in fun ways.