Bread and Jam for Frances

Fuck yeah, Russell Hoban! Not only are you my best bud writer of weird gnarly books for grownups, you also wrote this book about how to trick your kid into eating some proper food once in a while that, granted, I don't need because Emmett has the discerning palate of a grownup reader of gnarly books, but that if I did need I never would have thought of on my own, so, uh, many para-thanks, I guess, for this book that was also fun and cute!

(It took me 2,066 LibraryThing reviews to find occasion to use the word "gnarly"?!? I'm clearly not living right)

I never realized how much this book shaped my feelings about food when I was little! I remember really identifying with Frances when her Mom didn't serve her any spaghetti and meatballs - I might have even cried! It was about so much more than just being a fussy eater - it was about being recognized and having choices! The psychological complexity of the story is astounding! I'm sort of kidding . . . but not really. ;)

My favorite part is the extravagant lunches Frances and her friend Albert bring with them to school - and there's almost a fetish going on with the loving descriptions of salt shakers and puddings and custards and the concept of "making it all come out even"!

I have so much love for this book and the whole Frances series.

Unlike an earlier Hoban review (Bedtime for Frances) I enjoyed rereading this childhood favorite, Bread and Jam for Frances. This time around I identified with wanting too much of a good thing. Frances the Badger only wants to eat bread and jam. Morning, noon, and night it's the only meal she will stomach. This time when her parents give in to her every whim the lesson is soon learned. You can have too much of a good thing. I feel the same way about Chipotle restaurant being in my back yard. When it was all the way across the country and harder to get to going there was a treat. Like Christmas. Having the big burritos I obsess over just down the road diminishes their specialness, their chocolate-cakeness, if you will. Frances learns show more this the hard way, too. While her family is enjoying such delicacies as veal Frances is clearly missing out only she doesn't know it until the repetition of bread and jam finally gets to her. Soon she too is enjoying lobster salad sandwiches like the rest of her family. show less

Little badger Frances only likes bread and jam - until her other choices are taken away, and then she wants what everyone else is having. The illustrations are adorable, as are Frances' little under-her-breath songs. The text is rather long, especially the bit about Frances' friend Albert arranging and eating his lunch.

See also: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

One of my favorites of all time, this is the story of Frances, a picky eater with creative parents. She refuses to eat what everyone else in the family eats at mealtime, choosing bread and jam instead. After a couple of days of this, her mother employs some reverse psychology and only allows her to eat bread and jam. That certainly takes the fun out of the argument for Frances!

I love the little songs Frances sings to herself that reveal how she's feeling about her food choices, and I love the supporting characters. Her father is such a lovely fellow - so positive and sensible. And the final scene, of Frances unpacking her lunch is one of my favorites in all of literature - it would make a great passage for looking at detail.

Frances is a picky eater. She likes bread and jam because it's consistent.

Her parents are understandably upset by this, but they deal with it in the most practical way - they give her exactly enough bread and jam to fill her up for life.

The story is resolved very quickly, after only a day, but satisfyingly. "How do you know what I'll like if you don't even let me try it?" indeed.

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I owned this book when I was about 4 or 5 years old, and it came with a 45 vinyl record. I used to play the record on my plastic Fisher Price record player and follow along with the book. One day I accidentally sat on the record and broke it. I cried. I was sad, but it didn't stop me from reading the book. I love Bread and Jam for Frances. Reading that book made me hungry as a child and it makes me hungry as an adult--Celery and cream chese, tomatoes on rye, black olives, hard boiled eggs with a dash of salt, spaghetti and meatballs, milk with jam and bread. I don't know what came first, loving the book then the food or loving the food and then the book. This book still makes me smile and I'm show more sure every child will relate to Frances' dilemma. show less