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Summary
Summary
There's no better way to start any day than by whipping up a batch of everyone's favorite breakfast treat. Three kids and their helpful dog have taken over the kitchen for some early morning pancake fun. Just a few flips, splatters, and oozing toppings later, the children dig into the yummiest stack of flapjacks ever.
Talented newcomer Tamson Weston and award-winning illustrator Stephen Gammell have teamed up to create a mouthwatering and fun book that's sure to send all kids--and their parents--straight to the kitchen for a heaping stack of their own!
Features a tasty recipe for "Grandma's Pancakes."
Author Notes
STEPHEN GAMMELL is the beloved author and illustrator of Twigboy and Is That You, Winter? He received the Caldecott Medal for his illustration of Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
While their parents sleep soundly in the next room, two brothers start their morning this way: "Rrrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg... whack!/ Shhhhh, alarm clock./ No shoe, holey sweater,/ where's that other sock?/ Why get up,/ for goodness' sake?/ Wait... that smell.../ could it be...? Pancakes!" Gammell (Is That You, Winter?) depicts the boys' discovery of the source: their big sister teeters on a rickety stool, pouring batter into a pan, much of it whirling through the air like a fireworks display. The pug-nose, large-eared, stringy-haired children engage in a wild, yet beautifully orchestrated, pancake dance ("A pancake flip,/ a pancake flop,/ pancake bottom/ over pancake top"). One scene shows the baby brother pouring blueberries into the bowl, his sister swinging the pan overhead sending pancakes flying and the other brother balancing a pitcher of orange juice atop a stack of plates and glasses. Gammell's exuberant, paint-splattered artwork creates a sense of topsy-turvy movement. The ringing alarm clock leaps off the table, drawers and doors fly open, furniture and shelves tilt precariously. As the tempo quickens, so does the energy and magic, culminating when a pancake cow, moon and star spring from the pan. The sight of hotcakes, syrup, honey, jelly and juice absolutely everywhere may start many a parent's heart palpitating but, after the feast, the children happily clean up, sending water and soapsuds flying instead. Poet Weston's picture-book debut is a feast for the ears and eyes (and includes a pancake recipe for the taste buds as well). Ages 3-7. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
The text of this book, a lively rhyme enumerating the steps to making pancakes, is combined with equally lively, even chaotic pictures of three children making their own pancake breakfast. Gammell paints juice, syrup, and pancake batter splashing and dripping all over the pages, and the kids convey the joy of a make-your-own breakfast. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 1. A simple pancake breakfast turns into a joyous, batter-splattering riot when three ragamuffins take over the kitchen. While the adults sleep, two boys creep downstairs and join a girl who's already at work on a wild flapjack production line. After eating and a raucous cleanup, the kids race outside. Weston's minimal text keeps the beat with rolling rhythm and rhyme: A pancake flip, / a pancake flop, / pancake bottom / over pancake top. But it's Gammell's energetic pastel, pencil, and watercolor art that really tells the story; its explosions of color and texture are so visceral that children may test the pages for spilled syrup. Gammell's characters are irresistible with their mismatched clothes and gravity-defying hair, and he creates hilarious situations to match the simple words. Save some for later / in a secret place, for example, is illustrated with an image of a boy stealthily carrying an armload of cakes into the basement, like a dog burying a bone. Read this to fidgety story hour listeners who will want to shimmy and shake to their own pancake cheers. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2003 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Weston and Gammell have stirred together the ingredients for a fun romp in the kitchen as three lively kids make pancakes for breakfast. Mixed-media illustrations with variegated pastel scribbles and color splotches in the background convey the action as the children slop and splash their way through the creation and consumption of the meal. Done in an energetic style similar to his work in Karen Ackerman's Song and Dance Man (Knopf, 1988) and Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came (Bradbury, 1985), Gammell's illustrations are filled with zany, lovable characters making a delicious mess. Although a few of the rhymes are a bit of a stretch, the simple poem with its onomatopoeic phrases and catchy rhythm is sure to have youngsters bouncing along with the beat. Pair this title with Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes! (S & S, 1991) and Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake (HarperCollins, 1998) for a funfilled storytime. A recipe is included, along with a warning to "leave the cooking to the big kids."-Laurie Edwards, West Shore School District, Camp Hill, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
"Why get up, for goodness' sake? / Wait . . . that smell . . . could it be? Pancakes!" With plates, pan, glasses, and tableware bouncing about a gloriously spattered kitchen, three children--themselves gloriously spattered--chow down on stacks of pancakes in this rhymed breakfast bourrÉe. No parents are in sight, but big sister knows just what to do: "A pancake here, a pancake there. / One in the pan, and three in the air," until it's finally time to clean up, and troop outside for a "pancake cheer!" Gammell's madcap brushwork matches the exuberance of both the young diners' style of eating, and the rhythm of the brief text. Weston caps her cheery debut with a recipe for her grandmother's buttermilk pancakes. Yum. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
