Stories kids beg for. Ideas families keep using.
Silly, beautifully illustrated picture books that give families simple, playful ideas they can actually use beyond storytime.
Meet The Book:
The Great Fuel Mix-Up!
What happens when a bus slurps toupee stew? Or when a helicopter guzzles dirty socks from a drain? Spoiler: things get messy fast.
In a seaside town, five vehicle friends experiment with some extremely unusual fuels—with spectacularly silly results. Along the way, the story gives families a fun shared language for talking about food—one that can make those conversations easier and help kids understand why their bodies need fuel for the things they love to do.
It’s a laugh-out-loud rhyming adventure packed with hidden objects, bold retro-futuristic art and little details to discover again and again.
“I’m extremely critical of the pediatric feeding products people send me—and I LOVE this book so much! I can’t wait to read it to my kids and my patients.”
— Tovah Feehan
MS, CCC-SLP, CLC
Founder, Pediatric Feeding Partners
“This is brilliant! I loved the book, and my boy laughed at some of the pages as I read them. The Activity Pack is such a great addition—so helpful and practical for everyday life!”
— Denelle M.
Homeschool Mom
The story’s fuel analogy gives families a simple, kid-friendly way to talk about food beyond the book—helping make everyday food conversations easier and giving kids a way to understand how food powers what they want to do.
The free Parent Guide + Activity Pack builds on that language with printable games, coloring pages, and simple ideas families can use together.
More Than a Story
Download the free Parent Guide + Activity Pack:
Why This Book Exists
Like a lot of ideas, this one started with conversations around our kitchen table.
My kids wanted donuts for breakfast and candy for lunch. Whenever I tried to explain how food helps their bodies, I sounded like a parent reading from a nutrition label—and they tuned me out.
So I tried something different. I asked them to imagine what would happen if we filled the car with pancake syrup instead of gasoline. They laughed, started inventing even stranger things to pour into a gas tank, and the idea stuck.
That playful family shorthand eventually became a story about five vehicle friends experimenting with spectacularly silly fuels. The book’s Funky Fuels are ridiculous, completely made-up things that were never food—or fuel—in the first place.
The result is The Great Fuel Mix-Up!: a silly rhyming story that gives families a fun shared language to make food conversations easier and help kids understand how food fuels their bodies for the things they love to do—without turning storytime into a lesson.
“It’s very silly, with great intention and the right language and motivation behind it.… I would totally use this book and Activity Pack in my work with picky eaters and their families.”
— Catherine Bilostotsky
Paediatric Nutritionist (aNutr) and Feeding Therapist, UK
The Fuel Academy
The book introduces the idea. The Fuel Academy turns it into a group experience.
Fuel Academy is a flexible, ready-to-run storytime program for classrooms, libraries, homeschool groups and other children’s settings.
Children extend the story through games, discussion prompts, printable activities and coloring pages while practicing the Fuel Academy’s playful shared language:
“I’m the driver. I choose my fuel!”
Facilitators receive word-for-word scripts, group activities, printable pages and parent take-home materials—all designed to keep the experience playful and easy to lead.
The program kit is free. A copy of The Great Fuel Mix-Up! is required.
For Teachers, Librarians & Homeschool Groups
A ready-to-run storytime experience with a facilitator guide, group activities, printables and parent take-home materials. Review the materials, choose the activities that fit your group and make the program your own.
Download the Free Fuel Academy Kit
Bold retro-futuristic art.
Little details worth discovering again and again.
Packed with retro-inspired illustrations and little details to discover on repeat readings, The Great Fuel Mix-Up! gives families a playful way to talk about how food helps power what kids do, without feeling like a lesson.
“A super fun and adorable book, and the illustrations are wonderful too. You did a fantastic job with it.”
— Nicole Cruz
MS, RDN
I’m Brian Stoker—a dad in Utah who turned a playful analogy I used with my own kids into a silly picture book.
I wanted to create the kind of story my kids already loved: funny, visually distinctive and filled with details they could discover again and again. Illustrator Jimmy Flame brought that world to life with expressive characters, bold retro-inspired artwork and plenty of visual surprises.
The Great Fuel Mix-Up! became the first book from Nurture & Spark—a children’s book brand built around stories kids enjoy and ideas families can keep using after storytime.
Stories kids beg for. Ideas families keep using.
About Nurture & Spark
