How Little Lamb Came to Eat Her Vegetables

Between the time of birth and the age of two, children are food vacuum cleaners gobbling up all sorts of healthy food choices without fear or favour. If it’s on the plate it gets eaten.


Then at about age two, something remarkable happens. They (not all) - become fussy eaters and vegetables come to be seen as somehow an affront to their very existence. Mealtimes become battle fields and what parent has not thrown up their hands when their little ones puts on the show of a lifetime just to avoid eating a single pea.

I was no different and I went to those mealtime battles and lost and lost badly and so fed (and ate) with my daughter spaghetti bolognese for dinner for the next two years - just to get on with things - and I would hide - sometimes successfully - sometimes not successfully - vegetables in the sauce.  


She ate well in every other way - delighted at breakfast over great steaming bowls of creamy milky porridge or a yummy soft boiled egg with buttery fingers of toast; delicious avocado and cheese sandwiches on whole meal for lunch; fruits with yogurt and drizzle of honey - but of actual vegetables - well she would have none of that.


We would talk about the day when she would be ready to eat vegetables. It was all really very civil. One day she would be ready and that was that. However, on one occasion I boldly asked, “What have you got against eating vegetables?” A perfectly reasonable question to which there was no answer. My daughter - as with many children just like her - had forgotten what her beef with vegetables was. Not eating vegetables had just become a habit.

What this book purports to do is to give children who have gotten into a habit of not eating vegetables - and have similarly forgotten why - an out. In a sense it is a face saving book. My daughter and I have sought to approach the subject with great humour -  for when we laugh at little lamb’s antics and at her amazingly supportive and very funny family - something begins to give and we learn to laugh a little at ourselves. 


It is Little Lamb who ultimately decides that she will eat vegetables and of course we make it all sound as yummy and delicious as possible. Perhaps after reading this book a few times, your little lamb will also be inspired to eat some steamed vegetables with grated cheese melted on top - and a side serving of hot buttery corn! That is our hope. That is our goal.


We used puppets for the characters and strong positive imagery linking sports to a lifetime of heathy eating all under an umbrella of really good fun.


We pride ourselves in writing books that have one or more strong, intelligent and super cool female characters that take on the world and win!


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