Eric Carle (1929–2021)

A rooster spontaneously sets off to see the world, gathering recruits for the expedition while on the move, but runs up against the truism of the 7 Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I rather enjoyed the awkward, crumbling comeuppance he is dealt.

A how-to-do-it-from-scratch book, but unlike Pelle's New Suit or Tomie de Paola's Charlie Needs A Cloak, this one stretches the bounds of credulity by forcing the poor hungry child Jack to harvest wheat, thresh wheat, visit the mill to have it ground, milk a cow, churn butter, fetch wood for fuel, and gather eggs ALL BEFORE BREAKFAST. At least he's allowed just to fetch strawberry jam from the basement instead of picking strawberries and refining sugar from beets. But rather than a realistic show more picture of how breakfast gets onto the table, it shows how ridiculous it would be to try to create a pancake from the rawest of raw materials every time you get hungry. The sun would be going down and Jack would have fainted from hunger long before his breakfast was done.

Our kids know about making pancakes, but they don't have to go to the henhouse before breakfast, let alone the flour mill. show less

This is one of the first picture books I remember reading with my mother as a child. It still sparks a nostalgic feeling in me! It's easy to see why it is a memorable title and still beloved by so many after all these years. The artwork is the dominant memory: the vibrant fruits, the earthy brown dirt, the multi-hued green caterpillar with the red head. The other thing I remember enjoying about the book was the interactivity - pushing my little fingers through the holes made by the show more caterpillar. And finally, the theme - transformation; seeing how something can change utterly was a revelation at that age. It's still an amazing book; unlike so many other "classic" picture books, this one I have no trouble understanding why it is still treasured and read by children around the world. show less

Another Eric Carle book where repetition plays a large role, but I like this one for at least trying to making educational connections between the various large, wild cats of the world and their habitats, though I'm not sure stereotyping wardrobes of the people inhabiting those areas was the best way to go about it.

I was disappointed the regions and cat breeds weren't explicitly named in end notes at least, but my copy is a board book version, and I wonder if the paperback or some other show more version was able to spare a few pages to amp up the educational aspect. show less