Runaway Tomato is Kim Cooley Reeder’s 1st children’s book and boy is it should be a runaway success!  This is the story of a tomato that grew so big in one night of rainfall that it blocked the door to the farmer’s house on a large hill.  The whole town comes out to try to move it.  When they finally do, the tomato begins to roll down the hill and thus begins more farcical pieces involving townspeople trying to stop the tomato, until it eventually explodes.  Sauce runnth everywhere!  The whole town pitches in to clean up the mess, moving some of it to the city hall where they create a tomato fest for everyone to enjoy.  And when all is said and done, with the remnants in the city landfill, night has fallen again.  More rain comes, and the reader is left with visions of hundreds of tomatoes growing like crazy.

The premise of the story is so original, and it is heightened by Reeder’s use of rhyming and rhythmically symmetrical quatrains throughout.  But credit for this picture book’s success also has to be given to Lincoln Agnew and his illustrations.  Primary colors accented with black make for bold, beautifully crafted scenes.  This is a work of art that could be enjoyed any time but especially in the fall when tomatoes are ripe or spring when students often do seed planting activities.  Highly recommended for school and public libraries for read alouds.