It's Disgusting and We Ate It! True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History

by James Solheim

An interesting and nose-wrinkling collection of true food facts from around the world and throughout history.

How about a nice dish of Colonial Squirrel Pie with a side of milkweed shoots? If that doesn’t grab you, you might think about trying some Garbage Stew, just like they made in medieval England. But if you’re feeling a little tired and need a boost, your best bet is roasted spiders. They’ve got three times the protein of cooked beef. (Is your mouth watering yet?)

Illustrated by the wildly-creative Eric Brace, It’s Disgusting and We Ate It! is a fascinating look at culinary creations from all over the world!

Genres: Picture Books, History, Nonfiction, Food, Childrens, Science, Geography

48 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Lindsay Donovan]

So, I read this book as a kid. I’m 30, so it’s been a minute. I couldn’t remember the name, or the title. I just remembered that I loved it so much, and I wanted to find it for my kids- and my own nostalgia, of course lol. For over a YEAR, I searched. I googled every combination I could think of ‘weird food book for kids’ ‘funny food book for kids’ I even tried googling one of the poems I remembered from it. Nothing. Then one day I hit the right wording, and it popped up! I found it on a book site and it’s on its way, I couldn’t believe it after all that time I finally found it. And based on other reviews, I’m not alone in my love for it.

[Lady Allison]

I LOVE this book!

What do you call a jack-o-lantern carved from a hot dog?

A hollow weenie!

Also, did you know marshmallows get their names from a swamp plant called the marsh mallow?

[Paul Landkamer]

Fun-for-all-ages treatment on world eating practices. The catchy title is the strongest suggestion in the book that the foods are disgusting. Open-minded coverage on habits often shunned by Western cultures. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 is that it reads slightly choppy.

[Karen GoatKeeper]

What's for dinner? In some places grubs, earthworms, grasshoppers, mice or tarantulas may be on the menu.
Why do we eat the things we eat? Each culture has a cuisine and teaches food preferences to its children. And the cuisine reflects where the people live and the foods available to them.
This is a fun book to browse through. The factoids and text are interesting. The poems are silly. The illustrations are good, some comic, some informative.
Take some time to challenge your food beliefs and preferences.

[Katie Easter]

Genre: Informational Nonfiction
Grade Level: K-6th Grade

This book of foods would be so so so popular in a elementary classroom. This could be read by the teacher to younger aged classes, or read individually by a student during some "free time." This book could keep the interest of ALL students because I think they'd love to see what people around the world really eat!

[Audiophile Archives]

Oh my goodness! What a great “true facts” book for all…and about our most essential need: FOOD. Love the poems/haiku and pictures that made every ‘portion’ of this book palatable while completely grossing me out.

[Emily Cook]

"It was great but disgusting!" Eldon and Peter
People at lizards, birds, snakes, pigeons, ant juice, spiders and grubs!

[Samantha]

I give it 3 stars because my daughter like this book. Its kinda gross has some funny poems in it. Made me feel sick

[Kristyn Bray]

Great and engaging for history.

[Liz]

Very fun illustrations, great ick-factor, silly poems, lots of interesting stuff. I probably would have liked it better if I were an 8 year old.

[Lynn]

Fun, funny children’s book about food through the ages (European), many of which we’d find gross today. Surprise kids.

[Molly]

I was called to reread this by my friends talking about how frog legs taste like chicken - it holds up

[Emily]

Genre: Children's Informational Fiction
Grades: 3-4

For me, this was a hard book to follow. There was a lot going on for each page. However, when I was reading the book I could definitely see a third or fourth grader reading this cover to cover and being completely amazed! Each type of food has facts that go with it and there were a few recipes in there. I also love that each type of food had a poem that went with it. Overall, a very busy book with a lot of information!

[Alicia]

This book effectively explains the origins of some of the strangest things that we as a society eat as well as other "gross" foods from across the globe. The book gives both entertaining explanations and cute poems in each section, so readers will be able to break up facts into multiple channels. Solheim also gives a bibliography and full citations at the end of the book to encourage further research for interested parties. It's an adorably fun book with quick facts, but the amount of information would be a deterrent for younger readers.

[Duane]

This is a great book for pre-teens simply because it's so entertaining to read. Filled with interesting and gross information, this book is a great read for anyone interested in some of the weird things we eat daily and used to eat. A nice perk is that there are poems that go along with each disgusting food that we can't believe people actually eat. Nicely illustrated and easy to read, this is a great book for anyone's library collection.

[Kara Duncan]

How about a nice dish of Colonial Squirrel Pie with a side of milkweed shoots? If that doesn't grab you, you might think about trying some Garbage Stew, just like they made in medieval England. But if you're feeling a little tired and need a boost, your best bet is roasted spiders. They've got three times the protein of cooked beef. (Is your mouth watering yet?)
This book is full of food from all over the world and a true life account of tasting it all.

[typewriterdeluxe]

This 1998 family favorite will still satisfy young readers who are hungry for that gross-out factor missing in much of nonfiction (or foodie books). The book contains a few dated sentences when describing cultural groups but as a whole I think the tone of the text does a good job of attempting to normalize "weird" foods (such as insects, frog, flower salad, seaweed) and questioning some "normal" foods (such as milk and cheese, mushrooms, honey, hot dogs).

[Carly Gates]

I got this book from a book fair when j was a child and I love it! As an adult, I love to cook so I am graduated toward any book that talks about how food is prepared especially in other cultures. Children will love it because it uses silly words and pictures to describe what other people actually eat in other places or used to eat many years ago!

[Miekka]

An interesting book about the strange things people eat or have eaten around the world. There's some gross stuff in here, but not too bad. It was a little too old for my six year old. 8 years and up.

[Nancy]

Ohhhh...kids love the ick factor of this book and they learn some things while they are at it! This is a culturally diverse book. Who knew earthworm soup is a traditional fever medicine in China? I didn't! Cute poems and captions are interspersed.

[Sherry]

Very interesting facts about foods we Americans find disgusting, and some we find appealing, too! Lots of visual interest; laid out almost "kids' magazine-like", in terms of pictoral and text asides on a page. Booklegger, grades 3-6.

[Lauren Owens]

Hundreds of facts about the history of eating are presented in a fun and interesting way in this book. This book can be read for the content about different benefits of random foods or to examine the poems and recipes included in the book.
Recommended grade level: 1-5.

[Vee41dmb]

Cute illustrations. I paged through this and read parts of it to the kids. It was okay, but not the best style for reading out loud to a mixed age group. Would be a good book for older kids to read themselves as entertainment.

[Diana]

While this was recommended as part of the unit on prehistoric man, most of it did not apply to that unit. Besides, my girly-girls were not interested in icky foods. But when the boy hits this lesson in four years, I have a feeling it's going to be a favorite...

[Jenny]

Super fun to read and pretty interesting as well. I am using it with a history lesson.

[Rose]

641.3 Sol

[Kate Hastings]

Fun disgusting facts about what people eat around the world (and have eaten throughout history).

[Meredith Leach]

Love this! Fabulous illustrations and very intriguing stories about weird (and I mean weird) foods from around the world.

[Valerie]

I knew about some of the disgusting stuff we ate, but not all of it! Fun and disgusting book!

[Laura Z]

So many great "icky" facts for elementary kids and tweens. Sure to be loved!