When I was growing up, my favorite book was “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” In this book, it starts out with a grandfather talking to his grandson at breakfast and then the grandson comments that the sunrise on the mountain looks like mashed potatoes with butter on the top. Then the grandpa proceeds to tell the boy about a faraway island where it rained food. It used to be just a normal town, but one day something happened, and food started falling from the sky. The people loved it at first. The weatherman would forecast the upcoming day’s menu. However, it didn’t take long until it got out of hand. Sometimes it would rain weird combinations like brussel sprouts and mayonnaise. If it was someone’s birthday, he/she wouldn’t always get what he/she wanted. Then the food started getting bigger and bigger until it caused major calamities and danger to the lives of the people. Eventually, the people realized that the only way to survive was to build boats out of giant peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sail away from the island looking for another place to live.
            I liked this book as a child because it stirred up my imagination. It was different and silly in its ideas and plot, and that made me happy. The pictures were funny also. What impact did this book have on my life? Well, that’s an interesting question. I’m not sure. But I think that, if nothing else, it sparked my creativity and unique sense of humor. When the movie, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” came out, I was excited. It turned out to be a good movie, but not quite as playful and innocent and happy as the book. It seems like in the movie, the plot very quickly moves from the blissfulness of the raining food to the calamity/trajedy. Whereas in the book, it seems like it dwells on the happy parts longer. I guess that’s why I liked the book as a child. I liked thinking of life in an optimistic way, and imagining a perfect place where everything was exactly how you’ve always wanted it. So, this book probably impacted me in a similar way, by fostering this sort of “idealism.”