Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know about Fast Food is an excellent resource for all teachers in middle school classrooms to use with their students.
Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, teamed with Charles Wilson to write Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know about Fast Food, a book aimed to arm teenagers with the facts they should--but probably don't--know about the fast food industry of which they are such an integral part. This 304-page book is an easy read that speaks to kids-no lectures here about why they shouldn't be ordering extra value meals or considering French fries as a food group. Schlosser and Wilson provide information in an engaging way, a way in which the readers can't help but critically think about the choices they make on a regular basis when it comes to fast food.
Schlosser and Wilson give a glance into the past of who, what, when, where, why and how the fast food industry took hold and were off and running before you could ask, "Would you like fries with that?" Throughout the book, the authors provide interesting nuggets that will amaze students and keep them thinking long after they learn facts like the following: "If you took the 13 billion hamburgers that Americans eat every year and put them in a straight line, they could circle the earth more than thirty-two times.”
Chew On This could be used in almost any middle school classroom and integrated into almost all subjects taught. Schlosser and Wilson cover ground and present data that could be the core to an interdisciplinary unit, as well. Regardless of how teachers choose to use Chew On This in their classrooms, incorporating the book into their lessons will definitely provide food for thought for all of its readers.
