The Sour Grape by Jory John

Hey, Story Seekers!

Some people forgive and forget.

The Sour Grape runs a different system.

Remember everything. Write it down. Stay mad. Forever.

Lime didn't return your scarf?

Grudge.

Orange never called back?

Grudge.

Somebody looked at you funny on a Tuesday three years ago?

I suspect we're going to need a bigger list.

We're exploring The Sour Grape, written by Jory John and illustrated by Pete Oswald, the sixth book in their Food Group series.

Readit?

"I'm mad at you."

Why?

"I forgot."

That's actually encouraging.

Book Breakdown

Small thing on the cover I enjoyed: the sour grape is green.

Not purple. Green. Unripe.

The joke is in the fruit before you open it.

And here's the structural decision that makes this book work: the Sour Grape was not always sour.

That matters enormously.

Once upon a time this was a sweet, friendly, pretty contented little grape. Then came a birthday party. A big one. Grape planned it, decorated for it, and waited.

Nobody came.

Ouch.

From there the sourness spreads. Grape starts collecting grudges over everything, small and large. A borrowed scarf that never comes back. A phone call that never happens. Each irritation gets filed away rather than talked about, and Grape gets very, very good at being offended.

Then comes Lenny the Lemon.

Grape is supposed to meet Lenny, and a chain of disasters makes Grape three hours late.

Lenny is furious. Lenny does not want to hear the explanation.

And there it is. For the first time, Grape is standing on the wrong side of a grudge, holding a perfectly good reason that nobody will listen to.

Sound familiar, Grape?

Then Jory John does something I genuinely admire. Grape finds the old birthday invitation.

The date on it was wrong.

Nobody skipped the party. Nobody forgot. Grape wrote down the wrong day and then built years of bitterness on top of it.

That's a real gut-punch for a picture book, and it's the smartest thing in it.

Pete Oswald keeps the Food Group look going: big eyes, tiny limbs, enormously readable faces, and jokes tucked into the background. The best of them is Grape's grandparents.

They're raisins.

Obviously they're raisins.

For teachers and librarians: Lexile 430L · ATOS 3.1 · 1,183 words · AR Quiz 517896 · 0.5 points. HarperCollins, November 1, 2022. Forty pages, PreK to grade 2.

Note that word count. Eleven hundred words is long for a picture book, and the ATOS of 3.1 runs higher than the Lexile suggests. One reviewer put it well: the text is simple but reaches for some genuinely challenging vocabulary. That's a feature for a confident reader and a consideration for a wriggly three-year-old.

Jungle Jimmy's Journal

I like that this book doesn't open on a naturally grumpy grape.

Something happened. Grape got hurt. And instead of dealing with the hurt, Grape started looking at everything else through it.

That's a much more interesting engine than "here is a grouch."

Kids don't need any of this explained. They understand being mad. They understand somebody not showing up. They understand with perfect clarity the deep personal injustice of lending somebody your stuff and not getting it back.

What the book does well is let Grape work it out from the uncomfortable end.

It's easy to believe people should listen to your explanation.

It's much harder to remember that when somebody else needs you to listen to theirs.

Then Lenny gets mad, and suddenly Grape gets it.

Here's what I'd actually do with this book, and it isn't a lesson plan.

Don't ask "what did we learn." Please. Every picture book turns into homework that way.

Ask instead: was Grape right to be mad?

Because sometimes the answer is yes. You can be hurt. You can be disappointed. You are allowed to be angry that nobody came.

The problem was never the feeling. It's what Grape built on top of it.

And then the invitation turns up with the wrong date, which is the part I'd really want a kid to sit with. All that time, the story Grape was telling wasn't true. Nobody had done anything.

That's worth more than a tidy moral.

Oswald's pictures carry a lot of weight here, because a good chunk of this book happens inside Grape's head. Those eyes and slumped little poses keep a feelings-heavy story from turning into a speech about feelings.

And the food jokes do real work. Raisin grandparents is efficient comedy: it's funny, it took one drawing, and it bought John a page of goodwill to spend on the serious part.

Readit's Review

Okay. I have a question.

If Grape's grandparents are raisins...

Are all old grapes raisins?

Because that is a much bigger deal than everyone in this book is treating it as.

Also, three hours late is REALLY late.

I know Grape had problems. But three hours?

I would eat a snack. Then another snack. Then I would probably leave.

But I would listen first before turning into a lemon about it.

And Grape wrote the WRONG DATE on the invitation?

Grape. Buddy.

You were mad at everyone for years over a typo.

Check your work.

Jimmy?

"Yeah?"

When's my birthday?

You're a worm.

"That wasn't my question."

What Others Think

Goodreads has it at 4.40 out of 5 from 4,195 ratings and 525 reviews, and the shape is remarkable: 86 percent gave it four or five stars, and under two percent gave it one or two. For comparison, we reviewed a book earlier today where 21 percent of raters went one or two stars. This is about as close to consensus as picture books get.

The KidTime StoryTime read-aloud has 7.6 million views and 21,000 likes.

But the thing that jumped out at me in the reviews isn't about children at all.

The adults keep confessing.

Jeremy: "Oof. I took a long, hard look in the mirror after reading this one. I really need to be more grapeful and forgiving."

Susan Morris, more briskly: "Some adults could benefit by reading this charming picture book."

Charlie is the funniest about it: "It's really rude being called out by an entire book series though."

And my favorite story in the whole file comes from Mary Murray. Her son bought this book with a gift card because he'd read it at school and loved it. When they got home, he handed it to her and asked her to read it at bedtime.

Not to him.

To herself. Before bed.

That kid prescribed a picture book to his mother, and she took the dose and wrote a review about it.

La Coccinelle makes the craft observation I'd underline for teachers: the text is simple while still "utilizing some challenging vocabulary," which she notes is a thing she appreciates when it's done well.

The criticism is consistent and fair. The message is not subtle. Kirkus recommended the book while calling it slightly preachy, and some adult readers get snagged on the logistics of the party or on exactly how a grape ends up three hours late.

If you want understated emotional philosophy from a walking piece of fruit, this may not be your evening.

For everybody else, the point being visible is sort of the job.

Belly Laugh Scale

3 out of 5: Solid Chuckles

This is a good book. It's a three on this particular scale, and those two statements aren't in conflict.

The Belly Laugh Scale measures laughs, and laughs are not what's driving this one. The emotional turn is.

There's plenty to smile at. The fruit world. Grape's magnificent commitment to being offended. Oswald's faces. The raisins.

But nobody is falling off the couch, and the book isn't trying to make them. It's trying to land a gut-punch about a birthday invitation with the wrong date on it, and it does.

Three out of five. Solid Chuckles, and a genuinely good book that happens to be measured by the wrong ruler here.

The raisins are lobbying for a four.

I'm holding firm.

Final Explorer Verdict

Ages 4 to 8, and I'd point it hardest at the kid who cannot let go when somebody hurts their feelings.

Not because the book says they shouldn't get mad. It doesn't say that, and I'd resist anyone summarizing it that way to a child.

Grape has reasons. The trouble starts when every new annoyance goes on the pile and nobody is allowed to explain themselves.

That makes it a strong classroom pick, because there are several natural places to stop and ask real questions. Was Grape right? Was Lenny? Would you forgive them? What should Grape have done the day after the party?

Those conversations are sitting right there and they don't need a worksheet.

One practical note from that 1,183-word count: this is a longer sit than it looks. For a four-year-old at bedtime you may want to know that going in.

We've already reviewed The Bad Seed and The Good Egg from this same team. If you're working through the Food Group, those two are the doorway and this one is the most emotionally ambitious of the three.

I'm not forcing a bridge to my own books on this one. My shelf has books about individuality, friendship and perfectionism, but nothing that runs on grudges and forgiveness the way this does, and a bridge you can feel being built isn't worth having.

Readit?

"I'm still mad."

About what?

"You gave it three belly laughs."

You wanted four?

"Raisin grandparents."

That's the entire argument?

"Raisin. Grandparents."

I'll take it under advisement.

"I'm writing this down."

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit