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HOW TO MAKE A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH IN 17 EASY STEPS

A winning recipe: delightful illustrations, a clever story, and food!

Pea-nuts to you!

Lovers of peanut butter sandwiches—or, more accurately, peanut butter and banana sandwiches—won’t be able to follow each step of the “recipe” herein exactly, but they’ll savor this rollicking how-to guide nonetheless. All the better if genuine peanut butter sandwiches (with or without bananas) are ready for scarfing down after reading. A page of necessary “ingredients” precedes the steps to be followed, and it’s a sure bet readers will have never encountered most of them before in their own sandwich-making prep: four wooden clogs, one raccoon, two crows, one skunk, one skateboard, one accordion, one hat with a brim, and four mice. (It’s OK; all makes perfect sense by the end, and not all the “ingredients” are actually in the sandwiches.) As with any good recipe, each part of the process is easy to follow; the text is uncomplicated, with each step following one after the other in logical order. The lively, comical illustrations aid comprehension and enhance enjoyment. Important points to highlight: The foods used in the sandwiches are fresh and organic, and the story emphasizes working together in the spirit of camaraderie. The neighborly animal characters accept and celebrate each other’s differences—an excellent message to share with children. Human background characters are racially diverse.

A winning recipe: delightful illustrations, a clever story, and food! (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023

ISBN: 9781771475167

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Owlkids Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

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THE CRAYONS GO BACK TO SCHOOL

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.

The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.

Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: May 16, 2023

ISBN: 9780593621110

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023

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