| |||||
Gingerbread Baby
Books: CookBooks: Gingerbread: Item 5
|
Gingerbread Babyby Jan Brett
|
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful: Thanks, Jan Brett!, December 20, 2002 Reviewer:J. Sweeney (manchester, mo) - I work as a teachers' assistant with kindergartners. Jan Brett's books have long been favorites of mine. She may have outdone herself on this one! There's always the exquisite artwork, the detailed borders that foreshadow the story, and the kind and gentle retelling of tales that are classics. This is a delightful take on "The Gingerbread Boy," the same story we grew up with, with a magical ending. "The Gingerbread Baby" does not get eaten this time. How this comes about just really captures the children's imagination-they cheer, clap, and smile from ear to ear. We read all the versions of "The Gingerbread Boy" that our school library has, and the kids vote on their favorite version. Every year, "The Gingerbread Baby" wins, by huge amounts. That's all you need to know, really, about this book. Five, six and seven year-olds just LOVE it. And the adult reading it will enjoy the story and marvel at the beautiful art work, which Jan Brett does herself. Highly recommended!
Product Review
"I am the Gingerbread Baby,That sassy cookie! When Matti opens the oven door just a little too soon, out pops a gingerbread baby instead of the gingerbread boy he was expecting. Eluding all efforts to catch him, the flat, becandied baby is chased around the village and into the countryside. He mercilessly taunts Matti's parents, a cat, the milk and cheese man, goats, villagers, a fox, and more. In a less traumatic twist on the classic Gingerbread Boy story, this Gingerbread Baby even outfoxes the fox. Sure he's bratty, but he doesn't deserve the gruesome end the Gingerbread Boy usually comes to. Matti makes sure this naughty but appealing little one ends up right where he belongs.
Fresh from the pan.
If you want me,
Catch me if you can!"
This fresh-baked version of the traditional nursery story is brought to you from the creative and award-winning ovens of Jan Brett. Best known for such favorites as The Mitten and The Hat, she has illustrated many other familiar folktales. Her intricately detailed paintings, with their pretty, illuminated borders, are a perfect fit for the Swiss mountainside setting of this cozy old tale. And don't miss the Gingerbread Baby plush! (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
Brett (The Mitten; Comet's Nine Lives) presents a rather wordy and wandering version of "The Gingerbread Boy." Impatient for the gingerbread man to bake the full eight minutes that is specified in the cookbook, Matti opens the oven door prematurely and a doughy baby jumps out instead: "I am the Gingerbread Baby,/ Fresh from the pan./ If you want me,/ Catch me if you can." The cherubic child remains at home while his parents and a smattering of animals lead a cumulative chase through the Swiss countryside, depicted in minutely detailed pictures. Within the artist's characteristically intricate borders, windowlike cutouts shaped like gingerbread cookie cutters reveal Matti's activities at home: he bakes, constructs and decorates an elaborate gingerbread house, which he then places in a clearing in the woods. Well ahead of his pursuers, the fugitive cookie discovers the elaborate structure and happily takes refuge inside. The grand finale allows youngsters to lift a flap shaped like the gingerbread house to uncover its new resident, smiling and winking. Brett's fetching art offsets her rather facile narrative in a book likely to please her faithful fans and holiday gift shoppers. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed business Information, Inc.
Shop Bookstores:
Books
Resources
Most Watched Book Auctions
Gingerbread at Sduf
News To Peruse
More Subjects
Book Review Directory
Reviewed Authors
Reviewed Titles
Review List
Site Map
