cookies

Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast by David Ezra Stein

| Tasha
Cover image for Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast.

Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast by David Ezra Stein (9781536207781)

Little red chicken got up early on Saturday and brought his Papa breakfast in bed. Cookies for breakfast! But Papa doesn’t want either of them having cookies for breakfast and just wants to sleep a little longer. He agrees to read a book together though. Little red chicken picked out a book of nursery rhymes. There Was an Old Woman started out normally enough, but soon Little red chicken has turned it into a tale of shared cookies in a shoe. Jack and his candlestick and Hickory Dickory Dock all get changed too and now include cookies. Papa is starting to get a headache, so Little red chicken writes him a rhyme of his own which features cookies, of course. Now it is Papa’s turn to be hungry, and the two of them agree on a different treat for breakfast, cake! Pancakes.

This third book in the Interrupting Chicken series is another winner. In this book, Little red chicken interrupts regularly to continue to ask for cookies for breakfast. His sleepy and patient father goes along as best he can while also insisting that neither of them would have cookies for breakfast. The interruptions are great fun, transforming classic nursery rhymes into delicious humor. The relationship between the two characters is also a pleasure with their back and forth dialogue being just as joyous as the silly rhymes.

The art by Stein contrasts highly saturated and deeply colored images of the chickens with light pastel vintage nursery rhymes shown in a book. Those in turn get changed with some clever erasing and crayons that add yet another layer to the stories.

Another winner in a charming series. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick.

Review: Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar? by George Shannon

| Tasha

who put the cookies in the cookie jar

Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar? by George Shannon, illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Lots of hands can take the cookie from the cookie jar, but even more are involved in getting the cookies there in the first place.  There are the hands that mix the dough and put it on the cookie sheet.  Then there are the ones that made the cookie sheet and oven mitts too.  Hands feed and milk the cow that makes the milk. Hands churn the butter.  Hands plant and harvest the wheat.  Hands feed and gather the eggs.  Many hands doing important work, make that cookie arrive in the cookie jar.

This is a great spin on a traditional song.  I’d pair it with the more traditional version in a program to get kids to see it from both sides.  Shannon celebrates all of the hard work that goes into things that we take for granted.  He focuses on their efforts but also on all of us being part of a larger global community that really matters. 

Paschkis’ illustrations have a warm feel to them.  They hearken back to more traditional images yet depict a modern and multicultural world.  Their bright colors really make the book pop and will work well with a large group.

Perfect for a cookie story time, I’d advise having some cookies to share when reading this and other cookie books.  Yum!  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt & Company.

Review: The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst

| Tasha

gingerbread girl goes animal crackers

The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst

This second Gingerbread Girl book continues the story of the sister of the Gingerbread Boy who is much more clever than her poor brother.  She survived the fox and now has gotten a box of animal cracker pets for her birthday.  But before she can warn them about the dangers out in the world, they run off chanting: “We’re wild Animal Crackers, hear our fierce roar.  You can’t catch us, we’re off to explore!”  Soon enough, the animal crackers have attracted a parade of people and animals chasing after them.  Waiting near the river is the fox, who is eager to offer all of the crackers a ride across.  Luckily, the Gingerbread Girl is still clever and figures out a way for them to save the day.

Ernst’s story is a rousing success with clever rhymes, fast moving prose, and plenty of action and suspense.  The Gingerbread Girl is a sweet heroine who is creative and smart.  The update to the story is in keeping with the traditional tale, but fractures it just enough to be modern and fresh. 

Ernst’s art has a timeless feel to it.  With the gingham backgrounds to the textual pages, there is a country feel to the entire book that works well with its rural setting. 

A pleasing update to a traditional tale, this book calls for sharing animal crackers while reading.  But don’t save any for the fox!  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Dutton Children’s Books.

Book Review: Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman

| Tasha

fortunecookies

Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman, illustrations by Chris Raschka

One day, a young girl gets a package in the mail that contains seven fortune cookies.  She opens one cookie each day.  The fortunes are done as pull tabs in the book, nicely mimicking the pleasure of cracking open a cookie and the surprise of the fortune.  Each fortune moves the story forward a bit.  The first talks about losing something you don’t need, and she loses her tooth.  The next about money being like the wind, and she finds a dollar under her pillow and buys a kite.  The next fortune is more vague, about finding the good with the bad.  Here the girl loses her kite, but finds a cat and takes her home.  As the days pass, more fortunes are read, the cat is lost and later found in the fort the girl has built.  But one last surprise awaits that makes for a very satisfying fortune indeed.

Librarians will be very pleased with the tabs here, because they will stand up nicely to public use.  There are only seven of them and they are sturdy and move easily back and forth.  Equally pleasing is that the tabs make sense here.  They are not an afterthought of the story, but an integral pleasure of the book and fortune cookies themselves.  The story is intriguing with its mix of fortunes, straight-forward action, and then the satisfying resolution.  It makes for a book that is great fun to read, because one is never sure what will happen next, though you have been given a clue in the fortune.

Raschka’s art adds another dimension here.  His splashing watercolors are very pleasing on the white background.  Combining this free-feeling art with the dimension of the tabs creates a book that is not only unusual in its artistry but a joy to explore and read.

A fortunate pick for any reader, this book is appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Beach Lane Books.

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