About the Book

Want to teach your preschooler to eat healthy foods? This is a wonderful picture book for teaching health and nutrition to preschoolers that parents and children will both benefit from reading. It will teach your preschooler that he needs good foods "that make you grow stronger, help you think better, and give you more energy to play."

Foods are categorized into three categories like a stop light. Green light foods mean you can eat as much as you want because they're healthy. They include chicken, beans, cheese, fish, eggs, peanut butter, whole grains, water and fruits and vegetables. Yellow light foods mean that you shouldn't eat too many because while they may not be harmful, they'll fill you up and not leave room for the good foods. Red light foods are those you should avoid, and include hydrogenated oils, food dye, preservatives, white flour and sugar.

From the Reviewer

This book clearly explains to your preschooler why she should eat healthy foods. It discusses which specific foods have fiber, vitamins and minerals and so on. Not much attention is given to the foods you shouldn't eat, instead it concentrates on all the delicious foods you can eat. There are also parent tips at the beginning of the book and in text boxes on a few of the pages to help you help your preschooler eat more healthy foods. The pictures are bright and fun and the cartoon foods will really appeal to your preschooler.

Book Details

Title: Eat Healthy, Feel Great

Reading level: Preschool, ages 4 to 8

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; 1 edition (September 1, 2002)

Language: English

ISBN: 0316787086

Hi! I'm Molly Christensen, the Preschool Books writer at PreschoolRock.com. I have five wonderful children, ranging in age from 1 to 12. We own hundreds and hundreds of books and we all read a lot! I love playing games and reading with preschoolers and I often teach preschool classes. If you have a good book you'd like to recommend or just want to share your ideas and suggestions, please contact me.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Let children choose books. Even if they always choose the same book, following their interest builds the reading habit more reliably than adult selection.

• Book series give children the gift of returning characters and worlds — the anticipation of the next book builds sustained literary interest that one-off titles don't.

• Diverse books — featuring characters of different backgrounds, abilities, and family structures — build both empathy in all children and recognition/pride in children from those backgrounds.

• Re-reading a favorite book 50 times delivers more comprehension depth, vocabulary retention, and emotional resonance than reading 50 different books once each.

Frequently Asked Questions

My preschooler wants the same book read over and over. Should I allow this?

Absolutely — repeated reading of favorite books is both normal and highly beneficial. With each reading, children understand more: they catch details they missed, connect the story to new experiences, and increasingly delight in predicting what happens next. The request to re-read is a sign of deep engagement, not a cognitive limitation. Never replace a requested re-read with a book you've chosen — follow the child's reading lead. Boredom with a book you've read 30 times doesn't mean the child is bored.

How many books should I read to my preschooler per day?

The volume is less important than the consistency. Even one book per day, read with engagement and followed by brief conversation, delivers significant developmental benefit. Many families read 3–5 books at bedtime plus additional books throughout the day — this is excellent and associated with the strongest reading outcomes. If you can only manage one daily reading session, make it consistent, engaged, and joyful rather than perfunctory.

Related reading: See also our library tips guide and our picture books for empathy for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🎵 Phonological Awareness — Books with rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and wordplay directly develop phonological awareness — the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in language — which is the strongest single predictor of reading success at school entry.
• 🌈 Imagination & Creativity — Entering a book's world — imagining the setting, characters, and events — exercises creative and narrative thinking that enriches pretend play, story creation, and the ability to generate original ideas.
• 🌍 World Knowledge & Background Knowledge — Nonfiction and information-rich picture books build background knowledge that accelerates reading comprehension — children who know more about the world understand more of what they read across every subject area.
• 🖼️ Visual Literacy — Reading pictures — interpreting what they show, what details they add, how they relate to the words — develops visual literacy: the ability to extract meaning from images that underlies comprehension of graphs, diagrams, and media.

Eat Healthy, Feel Great

by William Sears, M.D., Martha Sears, R.N., and Christie Watts Kelly

"You can train your tastebuds to like a new green-light food by taking a few nibbles each time it is served. The more often you eat it, the yummier it will taste to you and the better you will feel."