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
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:
“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
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 Quick Ride
A 20-minute interactive storytime for ages 3–5
Read The Great Fuel Mix-Up!, make some noise, and get kids moving. The free guide includes word-for-word scripts, four simple activities, and a Take-Home page for each child. No food lesson or special training required.
AGES 3–5 | ABOUT 20 MINUTES | UNDER 5 MINUTES PREP | FLEXIBLE GROUP SIZE
The program guide 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 Program
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
