Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Sugar Would Not Eat It by Emily Jenkins and Giselle Potter


Sugar Would Not Eat It  by Emily Jenkins illustrated by Giselle Potter Random House, 2009. $16.99. PICTURE BOOK

A boy brings home a stray kitten, names her Sugar and tries to feed her a piece of cake. But Sugar would not eat it. Leo asks the adults in his neighborhood for advice on how to get Sugar to eat the cake. For some unknown reason none of them explain to Leo that cats don't eat cake and instead give him all the platitudes and threats that parents use to get their children to eat their vegetables from "eat it or you won't grow up big and strong" to "children in other parts of the world are going hungry." Of course none of the advice works. Leo finally shares his milk and chicken sandwich with Sugar and they are both happy until Leo decides to give Sugar a bath.

Potter's illustrations done in watercolor, gouache, ink and gesso are full of interesting perspectives perfect facial expressions. But her signature style is flat and old fashioned and is more suited to adult tastes.

Pre-K, EL (K-3), EL - OPTIONAL. Janell Pearce-Mattheus, Youth Services Librarian, Whitmore Library.

No comments: