by Joost Elffers
Long ago when you were young, before food became fashionable (Is arugula as hip as bok choy?) or frightening (Did the AMA say this causes disease, or prevents it?), it was just plain interesting to look at. Elffers, a self-professed lifelong kindergartner, remembers, and with an ear-raising slash here and a couple of bean-eyes there, he stuffs this coffee-table book with pear bears, ornery oranges, hep peppers and gnashing pumpkins. Even Elffers's lemons are sweet, after he has reimagined them as adorable piggy faces. Veggie-shunning kids might be enticed by the cool, freaky pea-pod mantises or snow-pea cicadas, and they definitely won't need much prodding to try to duplicate some of these delightful creations. With his cubist penchant for breaking down the familiar into raw shapes and rearranging, you might say Elffers is the Picasso of produce. Just don't let the animal-rights people catch you mashing up a nice baby-seal yam. (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $19.95)
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