"I'm not hungry. May I be excused, please?"
Once there was a goat named Gregory.
Gregory liked to jump from rock to rock, kick his legs into the air, and butt his head against walls.
"I'm an average goat," said Gregory.
But Gregory was not an average goat.
Gregory was a terrible eater.
Gregory liked to jump from rock to rock, kick his legs into the air, and butt his head against walls.
"I'm an average goat," said Gregory.
But Gregory was not an average goat.
Gregory was a terrible eater.
Gregory, the Terrible Eater is a 1980 children's picture book written by Mitchell Sharmat, and illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey.
Gregory is a young goat who is normal in every way, except for one thing: he refuses to eat trash like a normal goat, and instead wants strange foods like eggs, bread, fish, and fruit. His worried parents take him to the doctor, who advises giving Gregory the food he likes mixed with small amounts of trash in order to get him to eat it. Soon, Gregory learns to enjoy eating like a goat. But when he starts eating everything in sight, his parents have to find a way to scale it back a bit.
This book was featured in the Reading Rainbow episode of the same name, which aired on July 25, 1983.
This book provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Don't be picky, but also don't eat too much because it's not good for you. You need to eat a balanced diet in order to be healthy and happy.
- Be Yourself: By the end, Gregory has learned to enjoy eating both human food and trash, and his parents accept it. He has a breakfast of scrambled eggs, two pieces of wax paper and a glass of orange juice.
- Big Eater: When Gregory starts enjoying the taste of trash, his appetite grows and soon he's eating everything in sight. His parents have to curb the habit before he starts eating his mother's clothes hamper and his father's toolkit.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Gregory wanting to eat human food makes him a complete weirdo by goat standards.Mother Goat: We've offered him the best—shoes, boxes, magazines, tin cans, coats, pants. But all he wants are fruits, vegetables, eggs, fish, orange juice, and other horrible things.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The doctor Gregory's parents take him to is a ram named Dr. Ram.
- Extreme Omni-Goat: Gregory's parents are very concerned because he doesn't want to eat normal things like cans and boxes, and wants these bizarre concoctions, like scrambled eggs, tacos, and peanut butter sandwiches. They eventually start him on a regimen that centers around compromise — they'll let him eat what he wants (e.g., some peas) if he also eats what they think he should (e.g., the can); they realize it's worked too well when he starts noshing on Dad's ties and Mom's sewing kit, and have to tell him to scale it back a bit.
- Furry Reminder: Gregory says, "Baaaa," when he's unhappy, especially when his parents are trying to make him eat garbage.
- Gone Horribly Right: Gregory's parents try to train him to eat garbage by giving him human food, which he likes, mixed with small amounts of garbage. He starts getting a taste for everything, so much that he starts eating everything in the house, including his father's necktie and his mother's sewing basket.
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Gregory refuses to eat trash, until his parents persuade him to try it by mixing small amounts of it with the food he does like. Then, he starts to enjoy the taste of it.
- Instant Taste Addiction: Gregory the goat defies Extreme Omni-Goat by refusing to eat trash and only wanting to eat human food. His parents give him human food mixed with objects, and then he loves it. This backfires, as he becomes a Big Eater and he won't stop eating his parents' belongings. His parents get him out of the habit by having him eat many objects from a junkyard until he ends up with indigestion from it.
- Minimalist Cast: Being a rather short children's book, the only characters are Gregory, his parents, and Dr. Ram.
- Picky Eater: By goat standards, Gregory is one, because he initially refuses to eat trash like other goats and prefers to eat food like fruits, vegetables, and bread.
- Radish Cure: Gregory is a young goat who likes human food, but his parents are trying to get him to eat garbage. It works too well, and he starts eating everything in the house. So they go to the dump and bring home a huge meal for him: eight flat tires, a barber pole, a broken violin and half a car. He eats almost all of it, then gets a terrible tummy ache, tossing and turning all night. The next morning, he requests a reasonably sized breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, two pieces of wax paper and a glass of orange juice.
- So Proud of You: Gregory's father says he's proud of his son when he starts eating trash like a proper goat.
- Talking Animal: Gregory and his parents are goats that talk, but otherwise act like normal goats.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gregory's favorite food is vegetable soup. His parents give it to him for dinner, with the condition that he also eats the can it came in.
- Trojan Veggies: When Gregory refuses to eat trash and only wants to eat human food, Dr. Ram recommends to his parents that they start small and give him a new food each day. Over the next few days, Gregory's mom makes spaghetti with a shoelace, string beans mixed with a rubber heel cut into small pieces, vegetable soup in a can (but he also has to eat the can) and ice cream (but he also has to eat the carton).
- Unnamed Parent: Gregory's parents are referred to as Mother Goat and Father Goat.
