A FRUSTRATED mother-of-five has created her own healthy eating books to encourage children to eat their five a day.

Rachel Dennett was fed up of trying to convince her brood to eat healthily so she invented an entire set of fictional characters, The Krunchitz, and landscape to inspire her children.

She called the land Five-a-Dale and after it worked with her children, tried it out on their friends and now has attracted investors to take The Krunchitz global.

The 43-year-old said: "My children wouldn’t eat fruits or vegetables but I had a eureka moment about how I could engage my daughter which started out by sculpting little food characters out of clay.

"She loved playing with them and this in turn gave me the opportunity to educate her about why it is so important to eat the right foods."

"After many hours at the kitchen table, which often took me into the early hours, I ended up sculpting fifty Krunchitz characters which are the fruits and vegetable characters which have good characteristics, and the Dodgitz characters resembling foods containing high levels of sugar, fat and salt. I gave these unsavoury characteristics."

She added: "Now that these characters existed it seemed they needed a place to live, so I called their home ‘Five-a-Dale’ as in the five a day concept.

Mrs Dennett then enlisted the help of illustrators Robin Davies and Niall Harding to bring her characters alive.

Halesowen News:

She said: "I wrote a series of books featuring these characters and persuaded artists responsible for the illustrations for Thomas the Tank Engine, Postman Pat and the Bob the Builder books to illustrate my books.

"Robin Davies has illustrated hundreds of books for several top international children’s book publishers and is the leading illustrator for Thomas and Friends, and he led the way for the style of the Five-A-Dale art work.

"And Niall Harding has been creating illustrations for 30 years and is an approved illustrator for Disney Princess, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Sesame Street."

And Mrs Dennett believes the combination of her stories and the illustrations will make Five-a-Dale a winner.

She said: "I have a small group of investors who believe, along with myself and the NHS and most right minded people, that childhood obesity is an issue we need to address.

"My brand has been created to appeal to both adults and children and to encourage them to engage with healthy – eating matters in an entertaining and fun way.

"And it was created by a mother, not a marketing committee."

For more information visit www.five-a-dale.com or visit the Five-a-Dale Facebook page.