Hot Food: Nice!

by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Neal Layton

Interest age: 3 to 7

Published by Walker Books, 2025

  • Funny
  • Picture books
  • Poetry and rhyme

About this book

Young Michael thinks his dad knows everything – he’s constantly impressed by his dad’s apparently unending knowledge about the world. What a bus is, how many wheels it has, etc. 

Yet, one day, as the family sit down for dinner, it turns out that Michael’s dad doesn’t know everything. While Michael, his brother and their mum all know to blow on their hot mashed potato before they eat it, Michael’s dad pops a forkful of steaming potato straight into his mouth, and has to spit it out again. 

This delightful picture book version of one of Rosen’s most well-known poems is illustrated by award-winning picture book illustrator Neal Layton, whose vision has all the anarchic joy of the poem (the diagram of Mum eating her potato is inspired) and adds brilliantly expressive faces to the family. Layton researched the neighbourhood where Michael Rosen grew up and looked at family photos to get a sense of the family, and the book reflects that authenticity while being fun and delightfully silly. 

A lovely book about shared family time, the way that children see their parents when they’re young, and the humour of eating something too hot. 

About the author

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults. His first degree in English Literature and Language was from Wadham College, Oxford and he went on to study for an MA at the University of Reading and a PhD at the former University of North London, now London Metropolitan.

He is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London where he co-devised and teaches critical approaches to reading on an MA in Children’s Literature, having done the same at Birkbeck, University of London. He has taught on MA courses in universities since 1994.

He was the Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has published over 200 books for children and adults, including the recent bestseller Many Different Kinds of Love and On The Move.

About the illustrator

Neal was born and raised in Chichester, West Sussex but has since lived in Newcastle, Brighton, London, Slough and Glasgow. He now lives in Portsmouth with his family. He likes living by the seaside.

His studio is a room in his house where he can make a mess. The walls are covered with pictures, drawings, scribbles, badges, photos, posters, packaging and anything else that he finds inspiring. He uses all sorts of different media to make his illustrations: pencils, paint, pens, ink, pieces of collage, biros, photocopiers, cameras, a computer, bits of stick, old toothbrushes, dough, hair, leaves, anything that comes to hand... He likes his illustrations to appear as fresh and spontaneous as possible.

More books like this

Lists of recommended reads

Share this page Twitter Facebook LinkedIn