Maddi’s Fridge and a 20-book Giveaway

I grew up on a farm. We had a large garden and a bunch of fruit trees. And cows. And chickens. While I didn’t like weeding the garden and picking the fruits and vegetables, I did love eating them. (Well . . not the beets . . . ) My favorite? Strawberries and raspberries. About every 4th one ended up in my mouth. While Mom never fixed gourmet meals (and that was okay), we always had plenty to eat.

According to the USDA, nearly 14 million children faced hunger in 2023. That’s one in five kids. Look around your neighborhood. Almost one-fourth of those kids could be hungry. Right now. Right this very minute.

Hunger affects kids’ academic performance. (Who can focus on school when hunger gnaws in your belly?) Hunger affects children’s health. (How can a kid be healthy and grow normally if their nutritional needs aren’t being met?)

And what do you do if you’re a kid and you realize that your best friend doesn’t have any food in her home? Huh?

That’s the conundrum that Sofia faces in the book Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt.

Sofia and Maddi are BFFs. They swing in the park. They scale the climbing wall. (Well, Maddi does.) They play together at school.

One day, Sofia was hungry. She opened Maddi’s fridge for a snack. All she saw was a carton of milk. Nothing else. Sofia learned that Maddi’s family didn’t have enough money to buy food. Maddi begged Sofia not to tell anyone. Reluctantly, Sofia agreed.

But, Sofia worried about Maddi. She fretted about what she should do. Then, aha! She got an idea.

Sofia put some fish left over from her supper into her backpack. The next day Sofia pulled the fish out of her backpack and gave it to Maddi. Yikes! The fish smelled horrible!

The next night Sofia packed eggs in her backpack. When she pulled them out to give to Maddi, the smell was atrocious! (Sulfer, anyone?)

After two stinky tries, Sofia wised up. She packed two burritos, tortillas, beans, cheese, and milk in her backpack to give to Maddi. A delectable decision!

But Sofia realized that she couldn’t help Maddi all by herself. She broke down and told her mother. Together, they loaded lots of food into grocery sacks and took them to Maddi’s home.

Maddi scolded Sofia for breaking her promise and told Sofia that keeping a promise was important. Sofia wisely responded that Maddi was more important.

Sofia fearfully asked Maddi if they were still friends. Maddi replied, “Always!”

There are 3 things that I really like about the book. First is the illustrations. I love Maddi’s 2 kinky hairs sticking up from her head. It kinda makes her look impish. Spunky.

Look at the picture below where Sofia pulls the fish out of her backpack. It’s a hoot! Maddi’s arms out-stretched as if she could shield herself from the smell. Her leg raised in defense. But the thing I love most is her little tongue sticking out. What a great detail to visually state just how stinky the fish was.

In the picture below, Maddi’s reaction is so telling. Keeled over flat on her back. Arms stretched out. Feet in the air. And then her tongue! I love her tongue! Sofia’s bugged out eyes. What a great picture.

The picture below is of Sofia’s neighborhood at dusk as she runs home. Lavender, pink, orange. Beautiful sunset colors. The next time we see this scene, Sofia is walking home deep in thought about Maddi’s situation. The scene is mostly black and white. Bleak — like Sofia’s thoughts about Maddi.

And, last, I love Sofia’s and Maddi’s nose. Like in the picture below. I wish my nose was so petite and cute . . .

Kudos to Vin Vogel, illustrator for the book! He did a great job.

The second thing that I like about the book is its subject. This is a critically important topic. Brandt handles it with delicacy. She isn’t preachy or heavy handed. She doesn’t symbolically bang the reader over the head to make her point. She writes about food insecurity in a simple, plain manner that is easily understood by children. She does such a good job that children are inspired to be pro-active in collecting food for a food pantry. (See the interview questions below.)

The last thing that I like is the secondary theme of friendship. Sofia and Maddi are good friends. They play together. Lots. When Sofia learns that Maddi doesn’t have food in her home, Sofia is worried for Maddi. That’s what friends do. Worry — when worry is appropriate.

Sofia finds a way to help Maddi. That’s what friends do. After she fails in her first attempt, she tries again. That’s what friends do. She kept trying until she finally succeeded.

Sofia is a good runner. Better than Maddi. At the beginning of the book, Sofia beats Maddi as they raced to Maddi’s home. But at the end, Sofia slows down so they could run together. Because that’s what friends do.

Again, a gentle treatment of an important topic.

I give this book 2 thumbs up! Please pop over to the book’s webpage — and be sure to check out the activities page for kids.

Here’s a little bit of information about Brandt. She:

I’ve had the pleasure to interview her. She’s such a delightful person!

What was your favorite book as kid? As an adult? One of my favorite books when I was a kid was Andre Norton’s Moon of Three Rings. There was a character who could talk to animals, and I so wanted to talk to animals.

As an adult I still love fantasy and science fiction, and also read a lot of mystery and non-fiction biographies and science histories. Most recently I read Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Who are your favorite authors, and what books have had a significant impact on you? Andre Norton, a science fiction and fantasy writer, had a huge impact on me as a child. Her heroines were tough and independent. Not a complete rarity at the time, but still very empowering. Plus, she had a lot of talking cats in her stories. I really wanted my cat to talk to me. 

Strangely enough, I read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo when I was waaay too young for the subject matter. I think I was in early middle school. (Once I learned how to read my parents let me read any book in their library.) Or maybe I wasn’t too young – my oldest brother was a Marine in Vietnam. The fear for his life was palatable in my household. That book, and my brother’s experience in Vietnam, gave me a life-long belief that there is no such thing as a good war.

How did you become a writer? What were your influences and inspirations (for writing) while growing up? Once I learned to read, I loved falling into books. So many adventures, so little time. So, of course, I tried writing my own books. But it was only when my kids were small, and I was making up stories for them, that I began seriously writing.

What inspired you to write this book? Was there a personal experience or event that influenced the story? There are some stories in your own life that stick in your head. When I was about 10 or 11, I was playing at my best friend Liz’s house. When I got hungry and asked for a snack she told me it was time to go home. Does this sound familiar? One day I wrote down the story of finding out my best friend and her little brother had no food. That story eventually became Maddi’s Fridge.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing this book? When I’m in a school and a child raises his or her hand and says “I’m like Maddi.” It is so important for children to see themselves in books. 20 – 25% of American children will have a period in their lives when their family doesn’t have enough food. We need to let these children know that they matter, their experiences matter, and that they have friends.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book? Although I wrote Maddi’s Fridge fairly quickly, it took 10 years to find a publisher. Publishers told me that they were too big or too small to publish the book. One editor went to bat for me three times and still couldn’t get her publisher to publish Maddi’s Fridge. More than one agent or editor told me that there were no hungry kids in the United States. Finally, Flashlight Press took a chance on Maddi’s Fridge. Maddi’s Fridge has won multiple honors and is still widely read.  

Is there something fun that you would like your readers to know about you? For a while, I hated books when I was a kid. I couldn’t read in the 1st grade. I couldn’t read in the 2nd grade. I couldn’t even read at the beginning of 3rd grade. I remember it being so frustrating! Why could everyone read except me?

In fact, I didn’t like teachers. The only teacher I had really liked was my kindergarten teacher, because she never made me read. I was really lucky – that kindergarten teacher volunteered to work with me after school, even though I was already in the 3rd grade. With Mrs. Anderson’s kind help books began to make sense to me.

By the fourth grade I was beginning to fall into books, you know, that feeling that you are living the story.

I always like to mention this to young readers, because not all of us learn to read in 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd grade. Some of us need more time and more help.

Have you received any unexpected/surprising/memorable interactions from readers of any of your books? I was speaking at a community service group that was raising money for a local food bank. One of the organizers came up to me and said that her son, now in middle school, has helped organize food drives in his school every year since he read Maddi’s Fridge in 2nd grade. 

There are so many readers, from 1st grade up, who have read Maddi’s Fridge and immediately gone into action to help their friends and neighbors who may have empty refrigerators. I am so grateful for them!

What do you like to do when you’re not writing? To be perfectly honest, I’m still talking to my cats and dog and trying to get them to talk to me. Not much luck with my cats, but I think dogs do really understand what we’re saying. (Or maybe cats understand and purposely ignore us.) I live in the Pacific Northwest and very much enjoy hiking, biking, and kayaking.

Share a Peace Corps experienced that impacted you. When I was in training in Cameroon, I was sitting on the steps outside of our building and a man came up and sat beside me. He handed me a necklace with homemade beads. He said this was a thank you gift for coming to help the people in his country. I still wear that necklace today. To me it is a reminder of how incredibly kind the people of Cameroon are. I feel like they helped me so much more than I was able to help. They taught me to stay kind in difficult situations.

You’ve traveled widely. What is your favorite place to visit? Anyplace with a beach. Currently, I’m enamored with Costa Rica. They’ve done such a good job of protecting wildlife and their beaches are stunningly beautiful.

Is there a question that you wish interviewers would ask but none of them have? Yes: What book were you afraid of as a child?  My friends rallied around me when I was having trouble reading and one of them brought her favorite childhood book over to my house:The Cat in the Hat. She read it to me and when she got to the part where the house is a mess I slammed the book shut. I just couldn’t believe there was going to be a happy ending after all of that mess! 

As an adult, I finally read the ending with my kids. And they had no problem with the story. The lesson learned: not all books, even classics, are for all kids. If a kid isn’t ready, shut the book and try another. There is a special book out there for each young reader, and that book will help them fall into a story that changes their life.

Now for my giveaway!

Flashlight Press is celebrating their 20th anniversary in publishing. Huzzah! I think that’s wonderful.

As part of their celebration, they will give away 20 copies of Maddi’s Fridge to 20 of my lucky readers.

To enter, all you have to do is post a comment mentioning a picture book that you enjoyed as a child. Simple, huh?

The giveaway ends November 24th at midnight Mountain Time. Then, 20 people will be randomly selected to receive a free copy. The giveaway is only for those who have a U.S. mailing address.

I will give Flashlight Press the winners’ names and email addresses and they will mail out the books.