Monday, May 26, 2008

Mama Panya's Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya Mama Panya's Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary Chamberlin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ordered this from the library because Little Cherub loves pancakes. When it arrived it looked too wordy and "old" for a nearly two year old, and she showed no interest. After sitting in her book basket for a couple of months she suddenly latched on to it and has wanted it re-read regularly. I don't know how much she gets of the story, but it is a lovely book for illustrating generosity. A Kenyan boy goes shopping with his mother and ends up inviting all their friends for pancakes. His mother worries that all their food will be used up, but the friends all bring a little something with them. At the end there are notes on Kenyan village life, animals and plants to look for in the illustrations, and Swahili words and phrases. A book we will come back to again later, I'm sure.

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4 comments:

Fe said...

I'm assuming you've come across 'Pancakes, Pancakes' by Eric Carle? It's a _fabulous_ pancake book:-)

Melanie Bettinelli said...

Another good pancake book is If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.

I've been frequently surprised at Isabella latching on to books that I've thought were much too wordy and "old" for her. Like you say, I don't know how much she gets out of them; but she'll request them over and over again. I sometimes wonder if in part it's just the sound of the language more than its meaning that she finds attractive.

The Bookworm said...

Blah! Our library has neither :(. I think I may try to get one of them for Little Cherub's birthday.

The Bookworm said...

Melanie, I'm not sure about the more wordy books either. I *think* Cherub probably goes for appealing pictures and or subject matter more than the sound of the words, but who knows!