At a glance, “Pedro’s Hungry Ride,” written by Gloria Barone Rosanio and illustrated by her husband, Jim, looks like a book strictly aimed at teaching children about healthy eating habits.
However, the book also features lessons about how adults can provide healthy foods for their families, even when facing tough scenarios.
Gloria and Jim, Medford residents, released “Pedro’s Hungry Ride” in early October. They teamed up to provide a child-friendly story about healthy eating that also has a deeper lesson about the social habits of today.
“It’s a simple book about a boy who wants to find fruits and vegetables and be healthy,” Gloria said. “For adults, the message is a little bit deeper, where if you live in an area without having food readily available, what can you do to still eat healthy?
“Part of it is that I like the idea of the children’s book, because it’s a way to get a complex message out in a simple way.”
The book revolves around a boy named Pedro, who lives in an urban city. Pedro, wanting to eat fruits and vegetables, rides his bike from school to the mayor’s office to the grocer looking for fruits and vegetables to eat.
Eventually, after he discovers that he has to ride his bike to another neighborhood to find these healthy snacks, he discovers that he can create a garden that will grow these foods for him.
The book is not just a lesson about eating healthy. Gloria wanted to make a point of how difficult it is for people residing in inner-city “food deserts” to find fruits and vegetables to eat.
Much of the overarching storyline came from stories such as former Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s efforts to create healthier eating habits in his city.
Gloria completed the story after Gary Earl, a health ambassador who rode his bike around the United States in an awareness program called Journey for Health, inspired her.
At that point, she put Pedro on a bike and had the basis of the plot together.
“I just took all these different pieces of information and in my mind just formulated a story that put the story together,” Gloria said.
Jim did the illustrations by hand for the book. He wanted to create an environment that was appealing to children, but still realistic to many of the challenges that inner city children face when it comes to eating healthy.
“In this case, there’s no magic wand to make everything better. There’s no fairy to make everything better; there’s a real aspect,” Jim said.
Jim made the focus around the characters and the backgrounds mostly generic, though he admitted the city skyline is similar to Philadelphia.
Gloria and Jim believe the story has a lot of educational value to it. The book was sent to Booker, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and First Lady Michelle Obama.
The couple also created a discussion guide for teachers that will hopefully turn the book into something that can be used in the classroom.
“What people seem to like is that the book goes beyond that, to talk about a social issue,” Gloria said. “The adults get that message and seem to really like it.”
“Pedro’s Hungry Ride” can be purchased on Amazon.com.
