Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Pancakes for Breakfast

Pancakes for Breakfast
Tomie DePaola ~ Harcourt Brace, 1978


Again, sorry for my absence yesterday but birthday party duties call. After all, you only turn four once. I've been super focused on the boy this week leading up to his birthday on Saturday, which means we are reading twice as many books as usual. I spent all morning Monday reorganizing his bookshelves and pulling all the titles in the back up to the front. He must have spent a good two hours lounged on his beanbag getting reacquainted with long lost friends. One of which happens to be about his favorite breakfast food..... PANCAKES. I love wordless books and Tomie DePaola and this is one of my faves...

So there's this old woman, see. One morning she wakes with a hankering for pancakes and as she begins the prep for making them, she discovers, ingredient by ingredient, that she is out of just about everything and must go in search of. The story is funny and super well-drawn and ends in a silly twist that gives my son the giggles. Tomie's drawings remind me of marzipan figures, meaning they are almost edible looking.

While I worked at The Jim Henson Company, my boss was his ex-publicist and she hooked him up to create what ended up being a very, very short lived and little seen show on the Hallmark Channel called Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola. The puppets were gorgeous and looked just like Tomie's characters, and it is a true shame it never saw more of the light of day. I couldn't find a video anywhere online, but the few shots on the Wiki show what I am talking about. Lovely, lovely.

Also by:
The Wuggie Norple Story

9 comments:

heather said...

For some reason I remember having this story read to me when I was little. Love this book.

Heather said...

My mother-in-law gave this book to my son in a basket with pancake mix, a griddle with animal shapes (he loves having elephant shaped pancakes), and this book for Easter last year. Before then, I'd never heard of this book - it really is adorable. And one other thing - you worked for the Jim Henson Company?! I'm so jealous!

--K. said...

I must echo Heather's comment -- EXTREME jealousy that you worked for the Jim Henson Company!

Burgin Streetman said...

it was only for a year, but had the company not been in turmoil with the sale of it I would have stayed forever. i loved that place!

Pardon My French said...

I love this book!

Wsliquidation said...

Love this book.
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Kristin said...

We have this book and my three-year-old wants to read it all the time! We read it last night!

Carolyne said...

Tomme de Paola is one of my favorite illustrators. He has a pop up book out...the name escapes me, but it's incredible!

Marcy said...

I used to work a a preschool that had this book, and the kids loved it! I've been trying to remember it (the name, author, something) so I could look it up... so thank you for this!

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