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Only If You Like Disgusting Things

Customer Rating:
Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson is about fast food and how bad it is for you. There are a lot of different stories in the book. One was about schools taking out soda machines and putting in water and healthier drinks, but still having McDonald's and Burger King which is even less healthy.

Chew on This was not my favorite book. I am a vegetarian so the meat part made me gag. The book takes a long time to read; it feels like forever. The things that I don't like are when they explain how they kill a chicken and that pink lemonade is really made from bugs. I know that the facts are disgusting, but it is awesome how bugs can turn lemonade pink. The purpose of writing the book is to convince the customers not to eat at fast food restaurants. I suggest that you only read this book if you like reading about disgusting things.

Adrienne F.
Grade 6
Ms. Kawatachi

A good book for kids, but not for adults

Customer Rating:
I read Fast Food Nation a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed this. When I saw this book, by the same author, I assumed it was a sequel to Fast Food Nation with updated information and targeted to the same audience. Unfortunately, my assumptions were incorrect. This book is primarily targeted toward young readers. Where Fast Food Nation is jammed pack with great information, this book is slimmer, has larger type, and many more pictures. It's breezy style and layout reminded me of a middle school textbook.

That's not to say that this book is bad. It has a lot of interesting information (much of which is already covered by Fast Food Nation), but if you are expecting a follow up to the terrific Fast Food Nation, this is not it. Save your money!

Some social history (gasp!) with your meal

Customer Rating:
This book is clearly aimed at the middle school and high school markets. It's written at a reading level well below the 10th-grade level at which most adult books aim. As a result, I sometimes found the style a bit annoying, and the authors repeat and explain things that I didn't need repeated or explained. Nonetheless, it was easy to forgive the authors some minor annoyance - - overall, this is an interesting and lively book.

Schlosser and Wilson tell us the story of fast food. It would be easy to take the position of muckraker and just expose dirty secrets of the industry. They do a little of that, but mostly they put the industry in historical perspective. How did fast food restaurants evolve? How did they knock off the local diner? Why do they rely on high-turnover teenage labor? How have they restructured the meatpacking and potato industries? How have they restructured urban geography?

In short, those middle school and high school readers will learn something about America by reading a book about McDonald's and its ilk. Adults will likely learn something too.

Great for middle grades

Customer Rating:
I purchased a set of five of these books for my seventh grade class to read in book groups. This has been one of the biggest hits of the class! EVERYONE wants to read it. (In junior high, this is rare.) Every day, a student approaches me to enthusiastically share a fact from the book. Science teachers have been asking me about it because the kids are telling them about it. I have only read parts of the book, but it is fascinating and the sources are well-documented. I would highly recommend this book for all ages.

A whole new opinion of fast food.

Customer Rating:
This book is very informative about the fast food industry. It discusses everything from its beginnings to its methods of "brainwashing" its customers to the ingredients of some of the menu items. After reading it you will never look at fast food the same.