Assessment:

Plot/Idea: Chiropractic physician Richard Saracen presents his Twenty-Day Ice Cream for Dinner program, a strategy to combat childhood obesity, for kids and parents. Dr. Saracen explains it this way: “The program is designed to reset an individual’s metabolism. It is not a diet, although weight loss does happen." 

Prose: The prose is easy to read, but even though Saracen does address the child as “you” sometimes, the text does seem more aimed at parents than a younger audience. 

Originality: Dr. Saracen begins with explanations about how the body uses food and how childhood obesity came to be such a big problem. He then present lists of food that kids can eat at each meal, and explains why it’s sometimes OK to eat ice cream for dinner. As he states at the beginning of the book, the program is not a strict regimen and gives kids a lot of choices, so long as they stick to the “eat your carbs early in the day” principle. The program is intended to reset the child’s metabolism so that it will be easy to sustain after the twenty-day introductory period.

Character Development/Execution: The book has a generous serving of full-page illustrations. Although they may strike adult readers as rather generic, they help to establish that the program is geared toward youth. Worksheets at the end of the book will help parents and kids stay on track.

Date Submitted: January 05, 2022