Because, as a child, I confess that I used to eat my lamb chops, dipping them in ketchup. 'With the lamb chops that came down with peas and ketchup. She also thought about what was funny, including her girlhood eating habits. 'It was years ago and we thought, 'Bah, who needs all this paper to save?' But that was a mistake.' 'I didn't save the list, unfortunately,' says Judi. She says she then started making lists of food that also work as weather: a shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs, a drizzle of soda. Judi Barrett does remember, though, that the idea for the book came to her with one sentence: 'Henry walked outside and got hit in the head with a meatball.' 'That was a very long time ago,' says Judi. Or maybe Ron mailed his sketches to Judi. The pair say they remained very friendly after their divorce.īut way back in the late '70s, they agree, they must have actually met in person, maybe with their editor. They created Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs after their separation. The Barretts met at the Pratt Institute in the 1960s - their first books together were Old MacDonald Had an Apartment House and Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. 'I don't know what made me think of it other than the fact that I'm very involved with food,' Barrett says.Ĭloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is one of several children's books Barrett wrote that were illustrated by her ex-husband, Ron Barrett.

Sony Pictures Animation even turned the children's book into a movie in 2009. Hotdogs, already in their buns, blew in from the northeast.įood falling from the sky! It's every kid's fantasy - and since its publication in 1978, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs has sold millions of copies.

In Chewandswallow, it rained soup and juice. Everything that everyone ate came from the sky.' In Judi Barrett's classic children's book, the town of Chewandswallow was just like any other town - except for the weather: 'It came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs book