How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps
How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps
Step 1: Send the crows and the raccoon to the market.
Step 2: Teach the raccoon to juggle.
Step 3: Divide the day's earnings between the crows, mice, and squirrels.
How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps starts off with a bang, presenting a detailed illustrated list of the required critters or items needed for the endeavor. For instance, the donkey is instructed to put on the clogs so that he can step all over the peanut butter, making it either chunky or smooth. Very detailed steps ensue, such as the beaver gnawing at a log to shape it into a knife which would scrape the peanut butter into a jar. The animals all work together to make deluxe peanut butter and banana sandwiches which they all share at the park in a charming picnic scene.
This book will appeal to kids who want a quick and humourous read - there is something about the choppy nature of the book's organization into individual steps that would inspire fast reading. Such a lighthearted book is appreciated - it is OK to read for fun without today's requirement to send a social message. If there is a message in this one, it is that working together can be fun and productive, and that sharing the fruits of hard work can be especially satisfying. The illustrations are cute and colourful, with animal expressions adding a lot of interest and humour to the pages. It is especially noteworthy that a lesser-liked animal, such as the crow or raccoon, can play a positive role. Even the humans depicted in the book are delighted by the events. How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps is a must-have for children's collections.
Roxy Garstad is a collections librarian at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.