Mabel O'Leary Put Peas in Her Ear-y

Mabel O'Leary Put Peas in Her Ear-y by Mary Delaney, Illustrated by Kathy Couri, 2006

I shared this book with a group of kindergarten children who were suitably impressed with the huge pile of peas on Mabel O'Leary's plate. Mabel will not eat her peas and her mother orders her to sit at the table until they are gone. She decides to hide the peas in her ears. The sight of Mabel pouring the peas into her ears evoked loud "eeeeeeeeeuuuwwwwwwws" from my classes. Sadly, the peas obstruct Mabel's hearing and chaos follows in her wake as she tries to follow her mother's misheard instructions.

Peas are flying everywhere in Couri's illustrations. One of the my students asked why she didn't just feed the peas to her dog who seemed to being enjoying them in the beginning. As the kids lined up to go back to class, another student told me that she thought it was a very funny story. Recently a teacher recounted her own childhood horror of having to sit at the dinner table until the vegetables were gone. Delaney has touched a memory in kids and adults with this book.