Spinach Saves the Day is a delightful learning tool that gives educators, parents and writers a hands on look into the step by step process of writing children’s story books. The story tells of the growing friendship between an angry young child and his Grandfather. Through their sharing of folklore once told to his Grandfather as a child, the child is able to enter into a world that allows him to escape from his anger. As their friendship progresses the child’s grandfather makes a transition in his life that brings him to terms with loses of loved ones that caused him to withdraw from life. The child is able to relate causes of problems happening in the mystical land his grandfather conjures up, full of talking vegetables, giants and dragons with his own anger. The story takes a jab at socio-economic issues that lead to major crises facing us today but it’s done in a most unusual fashion by using a combination of delightfully entertaining characters and folklore. The story also touches on environmental concerns within the mystical land that echo of familiarity to things taking place in the real world when the child and some of the creatures he befriends have to learn to live together with their families and friends and find out what’s causing an ecological disaster in the village. The book deals with complacency, jealousy, envy, greed, fear and suspicions that make life in the mystical land difficult if not impossible to live harmoneously. Unless the child and his new friends are brave enough to convince the divided village that what may seem like a good idea on the surface is not always the case, the same disaster that befell upon the Indians that lived there could happen again. It is a heartwarming story with a painless lesson about what is at the root of today’s socio-economic issues observed from an anthropologist’s viewpoint. The author captures the essence of real life problems and solutions then presents them in a manner that is fun and entertaining for people of all ages.
