Pick of the Week
Title: Pancakes, Pancakes! (Apparently there is an earlier edition as well, with slightly different text.)Author: Eric Carle
Illustrator: Eric Carle
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division
Web Links: Eric Carle's Simon and Schuster Profile This website has links at the bottom to Eric Carle's official website and a website for Early Reader Books. I highly recommend Eric Carle's website. It looks like a great resource for learning about his art, and ideas for educators (parents and teachers alike, because parent's are 24-7 teachers and we can all use a little help with ideas sometimes!)
Summary: Jack wakes up and wants pancakes for breakfast. His mother agrees to help him but there's much to do before Jack gets to eat one. Jack learns what it takes to make a pancake from gathering the wheat, to milking the cow. After his hard work it's time to eat his delicious pancakes!
Story Likes: It makes you think about all the preparation that goes into the food we eat. It doesn't start in the kitchen... it starts in the fields, then to the miller, the milk cow, chickens for eggs, and chopping the wood to make a fire to cook the food.
Story Dislikes: Layout of the text was a little distracting, kind of choppy. Each sentence starts on a new line and I think it would be a little more pleasing to the eye if it were smoothly all together.
Lessons Taught Through the Story: working for what you want, farm to table
Illustration Likes: The characters are really brilliant, especially against the white page background. It brings the focus right to the pictures that are telling the story. I love the textures brought out in each part of the pictures by the way Eric Carle illustrates. Before reading this story I hadn't really planned on illustrating with people, more with animal characters (in my opinion less intimidating to draw or paint.) However, after reading this book, I think it adds a good element having the characters human. I will need to work hard to develop that skill. I think that human characters are harder to create and less forgiving of miss proportions than animal characters.
Illustration Dislikes: There's a page that Jack's eye seems out of place on his face.
