Pancakes for Supper

by Anne Isaacs, Mark Teague (Illustrator)

Caldecott Honor author Anne Isaacs and N.Y. TIMES bestselling artist Mark Teague transform Helen Bannerman's popular classic story into an Amercian tall tale set in the backwoods of New England.


When her family's wagon hits a bump, golden-haired Toby Littlewood is hurled into the sky and lands deep in the snowy forest. There she meets a prickly porcupine, an enormous bear, and a hungry cougar, among other fearsome creatures. Cleverly, she talks each one out of eating her by offering up her fancy clothes. In the end, in a competition to be the grandest beast, the vain animals chase each other around and around a maple tree, where they turn into maple syrup!

Isaacs' clever, rollicking text and Teague's animated animals in Toby's clothing are sure to delight the youngest reader.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Food, Fiction, Adventure, Cooking

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

After getting bounced out of her parent's horse-drawn wagon on the way to town, Toby finds herself lost in the forest and having to bargain with its wild animals in order to keep them from injuring or eating her.

This reimagining of The Story of Little Black Sambo side-steps (or maybe multiplies) the racist issues of the originally work by recasting the lead as a little white girl named Toby living in rural New England. But it still has the same nonsensical ending, and even tops it by adding some dubious information about the speed of production of maple syrup.

Regardless, my daughter enjoyed the story when she was six.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this one when I judged it by its cover yesterday, but unfortunately it was totally weird and boring. The whole story just doesn't even match up to the ending... like we have a bunch of animals stealing clothes from a girl, then the animals turn into a brown puddle that gets sucked up a tree to become maple syrup which the girl then eats on pancakes? What? I... okay?

The illustrations were awesome though, so all those stars are for the illustrations and zero of them are for the story.

[Yolanda Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is a little misleading, but the story of Toby, and how she wrangled her way around some fierce creatures, is still enjoyable.

[Alyssa Messerli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well it is a very interesting book about a girls travels with her parents. There is a lot of rhyming as well as a few challenging words which can be very good for kids to be exposed to.

[Cici]

Such a random ending and I felt the rhyme scheme was weak. I appreciated the oil painting illustrations though

[Ellie Redman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a Tall tale that I read while we were looking at books in class and it really stuck out to me. What drew me to this book was the title and it took the story till the end to mention what the title was. throughout the book, the girl was scared that an animal was going to eat her so began to give all the animals her clothes till she almost had none! By the end of the book, all of the animals were fighting about who was the greatest in the forest with the girl's clothes. The animals began to chase each other around and the clothes ended up falling off! It is a light-hearted story that I think would make your students laugh! This story will definitely keep your students engaged while teaching them about Tall tales.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story about Toby and her parents traveling through the woods. She gets bounced out of the wagon and meets some sinister animals, who she placates by giving them her clothes. The rhyme is nice, the illustrations are great. I thought it was more about pancakes, though!

[Zoe McCurley]

Summary:
Pancakes for Supper is a very cute and inspiring book by Anne Isaacs. Isaacs tells the story of a young girl named Toby who is all dressed up her new clothes to go into town with her parents. Along the way however, they hit a bump and Toby goes flying out and falls into the middle of the forest. On her journey back to finding her parents, Toby encounters many different animals and she has to give them her new clothes in order to escape them. Toby is sad about her clothes but then all the animals meet up and chase each other angrily around a maple tree causing them all to turn into a puddle of maple syrup. In the end, Toby gets her new clothes back, finds her parents, and uses the syrup on her pancakes for supper.

Response:
I thought this was a very interesting story. I was a little confused about why the animals turned into syrup but it was still very fun and imaginative. I also really liked how Toby was portrayed as a very brave and independent young girl. She did not need her parents and she did not run away in fear from the animals, but stood up to them and faced them instead. I think this is very inspiring for young girls and teaches them that they can be strong and courageous and stick up for themselves even when no one else will.

How I would use it:
I do not think I would use this book in therapy simply because it does not have many speech or language teaching tools in it. As much as I enjoyed the message of the book, I felt it was a little confusing and left the reader a bit puzzled. I would not necessarily recommend this book but I would not turn children away from it either.

[Haley]

"Pancakes for Supper" by Anne Isaacs is the story of a girl and her family on the way to a place called Whisker Creek. On the way there, Toby sings a song about her pretty new clothes until she is accidentally separated from her parents and becomes lost in the woods! As she tries to find her way back, she encounters a handful of scary creatures, each of which she makes peace with by giving them a piece of her clothing- jacket, sweater, dress, and mittens- in order to become the most ferocious beast. However, the animals see each other, and begin arguing over who is truly the most ferocious beast. As they chase each other around a tree, they blur together and meld into the tree itself. When Toby is finally reunited with her family, the tree produced syrup from the animals and the family has pancakes with syrup for dinner.

This story really did not make much sense to me. I did appreciate that it was unique, but I think it may have been too unique to really make sense. However, I know that children's books do not need to make sense because a lot of children won't even think twice about it. The illustrations were beautiful, and I also liked the rhyming stanzas that each of the animals spoke when they encountered Toby in the woods.

I would use this in therapy if I wanted to target rhyming phonemes or humor. It was a silly story, and I think it would be important for the client to understand why it is silly! We could talk about why the animals were wearing human clothes or how Toby ate 169 pancakes and why these things are funny.

[Melki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's a rootin'-tootin' tall tale of a plucky young gal who falls off her family's wagon, and ends up giving away her clothes in order to survive the vicious creatures that roam the wild landscape. (It's utterly bizarre that except for the wolf and the mountain lion, either of whom would most certainly enjoy a child-sized snack, every other critter could have been avoided by simply walking in another direction.) It all ends well (for the humans, anyway . . . ), and there are indeed pancakes for supper.

Which really has absolutely NOTHING to do with the rest of the story.

I'm normally a big fan of Teague's artwork, but all the people in this one have a creepy, plasticine, Jared Kushner quality. Yick!



Use the included recipe to cook up some yummy pancakes (Good ANY time of day!), but otherwise avoid this one like a confused flour beetle.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A former colleague introduced me to this story last year and I was shocked and told her it’s a retelling of Little Black Sambo (because I’m old enough —and my family was unenlightened enough— to have had a copy of the book and eaten at the restaurant chain Sambo’s when I was a kid). I appreciate the parallels with the tricking the animals and maple syrup instead of butter, and also of Isaacs using North American animals instead of tigers.

I hemmed and hawed about should I share this with my kinders given I know the history, but the story as Isaacs tells it is so different. Still, I’m not sure but the kiddos loved the preposterousness of the story.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

A busy tall tale, with Teague's signature illustration style, that seems vaguely familiar. A variety of wild animals, including some normally peaceful ones, threaten to eat or otherwise harm the main character until she outsmarts them. I don't think I would have enjoyed this as a kid. I would have been upset by the idea of the animals turning into maple syrup and being eaten by the book's main characters at the conclusion.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story adapted and based on the story of Little Black Sambo. The story is set in the deep woods of New England, but has a female named Toby who has new clothing, and after being separated from her family has to trade her new clothes to prevent from being eaten by hungry animals. This book provides a recipe for pancakes at the end of the tale.

[Mai Mai · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fast book to read. A children’s book with a rhyme. I say it entertains me. I know how my daughters love reading this. But of course there is always reason not giving this a 5 star rates. I don’t see how the animals disappear after chasing each other.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a modern retelling of a familiar, but politically incorrect, story about a child who gives her clothes away to animals, who then fight over the clothes and chase each other until they turn into syrup. I didn't enjoy the writing in this book.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A silly story with fun illustrations.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a neat tale. Great illustrations.

[MelMon Sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone like breakfast for dinner. Lucky for Toby she didnt become the main course.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is, in a word, bizarre. The one awesome feature: a female protagonist named Toby!! The rest is...well, read it and you'll find out.

[Kaleigh WIlton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a brave girl who defends herself against animals

[Library Lady Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would also pair well with some Jan Brett books about animals in clothing.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is really weird and kinda creepy.

[Terran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very strange book.

[The Book Box]

My teacher read this to us in class yesterday.

[Haela C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book with a fable vibe, teaches about bravery

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot understate how little the pancakes come in to this story.

[Dee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Little Black Sambo is now a white American girl named Toby; the Indian tigers are now American forest animals; and the Indian ghee is now American maple syrup.

[Mary Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the illustrations in this book, although I wasn't a fan of the story. Although it would be perfect for a young child, it was extremely predictable and very far fetched.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Teague is one of my favorite illustrators and this book does not disappoint in the art department but does in the plot. There is plenty onomatopoeia, some hyperbole, plenty of dialogue, and many text features the convey meaning like bold and capitalized words all add to the story. There is about ten to twenty lines per page which can be overwhelming for weaker readers. The font size changes with intensity of plot which is a nice text feature which would be a great lesson on reading with expression. The animals encountered are all on the defensive and it really makes me feel there is a sense of fear in all animals, except the bear who wants to eat the girl. The plot has a huge switch in the plot when the animals disappear abruptly and you start to feel like Toby was on a huge sugar high on Maple Syrup. I just don't understand the shift in plot. I really was enjoying the story until the resolution didn't make any sense. There was great rising action and climax but beyond that this book is weak. If you can over look the weak plot this book still gets three stars because the other things i.e. illustrations, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, dialogue, and text features.

[Melissa S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this adventurous tale, a young girl named Toby is on a trip with her family through the woods. But while traveling to their destination, young Toby gets flung out of the wagon when it hits a bump along the road and lands in a snowbank all alone. Toby then has to face several animals who are starving and would like to eat her as she makes her way back to find her family. Toby must use bargining skills to avoid being eaten along her travels. As the animals she encounters later find each other they begin to fight giving Toby plenty of time to get safely away and find her parents. They then go about their trip and have pancakes and syrup for supper. I would recommend this book to children first through third grade. It provides a fun story for children to grasp onto. This book would be classified into modern fantasy genre. The type of modern fantasy that I would place this book in is modern folktales. Its rhyming scheme allows for a fun way to entertain children without the book being to dark with all the animals who want to eat the young girl.