HOW TO MAKE A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH IN 17 EASY STEPS

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HOW TO MAKE A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH IN 17 EASY STEPS

Name: HOW TO MAKE A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH IN 17 EASY STEPS
Author: Bambi Edlund
ISBN: 9781771475167

by Bambi Edlund ; illustrated by Bambi Edlund ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023

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

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
SQUIRREL-ISH
by Bambi Edlund ; illustrated by Bambi Edlund

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT A WASTE!
by Claire Eamer ; illustrated by Bambi Edlund

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

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

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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THE CRAYONS' CHRISTMAS

From the Creative Creature Catcher series

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2019

Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more.

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A flurry of mail addressed to Duncan’s crayons ushers in the Christmas season in this novelty spinoff of the bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) and The Day the Crayons Came Home (2015).

Actual cards and letters are tucked into envelopelike pouches pasted to the pages; these are joined in some cases by other ephemera for a package that is likely to invite sudden, intense play followed by loss and/or damage that will render the book a disappointment to reread. That’s probably OK, as in contrast to the clever story that kicked this small series off, this outing has a hastily composed feel that lacks cohesion. The first letter is addressed to Peach from Mom and includes a paper doll of the “naked” (de-wrappered) crayon along with a selection of tabbed changes of clothing that includes a top hat and tails and a bikini top and bottom. Peach’s implied gender fluidity does not mitigate the unfortunate association of peach with skin color established in the first book. The sense of narrative improvisation is cemented with an early page turn that takes the crayons from outdoors snow play to “Feeling…suddenly very Christmas-y, the crayons headed inside.” Readers can unpack a box of punch-out decorations; a recipe for gluten-free Christmas cookies that begins “go to store and buy gluten-free cookies”; a punch-out dreidel (turns out Grey is Jewish); a board game (“six-sided die” not included); and a map of Esteban (aka Pea Green) and Neon Red’s travels with Santa.

Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more. (Novelty. 4-8)