Thursday, January 10, 2013

Tyler Makes Pancakes; Florence and Frazier and The Peace Book; Todd Parr


Food Network chef Tyler Florence and Illustrator Craig Fazier team up in this cute book.  Tyler, is a little boy who dream of pancakes when he wakes up he decides to surprise his parents with pancakes for breakfast and heads out on his bike with his dog Tofu. [ hmm.... young child heading out on bike while parents sleep to buy ingredients for pancakes??]

Mr. Jones from the local market gives Tyler an education as to where all the ingredients for pancakes come from -- eggs, wheat, butter, milk, maple syrup etc, [ this aspect of the book was well done and informative for young children]

When Tyler returns home he gets a little help in preparing breakfast for his parents and all sit down to enjoy a tall tall stack of pancakes.

My Thoughts - Well from the cover of this book, one would think a cute kids book for very young  preschoolers, but the story, although well done left me feeling iffy about a young child heading off too the store on a bike while parents sleep, using the stove to cook pancakes? Perhaps the real audience might be 6-8 year range.  The illustrations are a bit simplistic, and not all that colorful, but it was very informative for children to learn where our food comes from.  In the end, I probably would not buy this book, but suggest borrowing it from the library instead. - 3.5/5 stars

(2009 - Little Brown & Company)

Todd Parr's books for children embrace diversity and teach children at an early age that it is okay to be "different".   "Peace" a concept which might be a little more difficult to explain to very young children is explained in an easy to understand way. From keeping the streets clean, our water clean for the fish, planting trees and giving shoes to those who need them, giving a hug and learning to say you are sorry when you hurt someone, as well as many other illustrated examples of "peace".  

My Thoughts - The message is "Peace" is being different, feeling good about yourself, helping others to in turn making the world a better place because of your actions. Illustrated with a quirky multicultural mix of blue, green, brown, yellow, and purple faces, that children will love, it's a picture book with simple words that will help young children better understand the concept of peace, love and differences. - 4.5/5 stars

9 comments:

  1. Tyler Florence leaves a bad taste in my month after a particularly diva like event he did for Borders. Many years ago but still...bad taste and the whole jump on the kid book bandwagon because I'm famous schtick? bleh. He can go along with Jay Leno and Jeff Foxworthy.

    Todd Parr on the other hand, i adore. :)

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  2. I thought Tyler Makes Pancakes was cute but nothing earth shattering. I doubt I would buy it either.

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  3. Aww, darn, I like Tyler Florence on Food Network. I'm sorry to hear he's not so nice. He seems like a good father that a children's food book seemed like a good idea. Oh well.

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  4. Ha ha, I know what you mean about the kid heading out alone and then using the stove! But I like the thought behind it all! :--) Did you ever see Tomie de Paola's book "Pancakes for Breakfast"? I love his illustrations so much, and I love the fact that in many of his books, the reader must supply the dialog.

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  5. I also don't think that the pancake book is a great idea for young children, as it might give them ideas that their parents don't really want them to have. I still get a bit nervous when my daughter wants to cook unsupervised, and she is 16! I like the ideas presented in the second book though!

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  6. I agree with you and Zibilee - I wouldn't want the book giving kids any ideas. Sometimes books like that can be silly or used as a cautionary tale by parents, but I guess I'd have to see it in person to know what my take would be. The multicultural book does look good!

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  7. I wouldn't read the first one to a too young one that's for sure!! :D LOL!!!

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  8. LOL! Threre are lots of kids books I bring home for Gage and once we actually read them I have to say, 'but you can't do that!" This wouldn't work for him anyway, the boy won't touch a pancake or waffle.

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