Dancin' in the Kitchen - Hardcover

Gelsanliter, Wendy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399230351 ISBN 13: 9780399230356

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile, 1998

Synopsis

Dinner time is dancin' at Grandma's house while the chicken and dumplings simmer on the stove and all three generations of the family groove to the music on the kitchen radio, working up generous appetites.

About this title

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1-What began as a recorded song lacks substance and flair when translated to the printed page. Basically, Mama, Papa, Sis, Brother, baby, Grandpa, and Grandma strut through the picture-book pages to the music on the radio from dinner preparation through dessert and cleanup. The text, a series of rhymed verses, one quatrain to a double-page spread, seems to be on parade as well. It tilts and sways along with the figures, but the rhymes, sometimes forced and awkwardly scanned, jar the ear. Priceman's illustrations, slightly reminiscent of the forms in her successful Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (S & S, 1995) have vitality and pizzazz. They bleed off the page in bold, dramatic swipes of color but there's a garishness that jars the eye. Sit this one out.
Harriett Fargnoli, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Readers will want to grab a wooden spoon and join the culinary conga line in this snazzy picture book. Dinnertime at Grandma's house is no staid affair. Anyone near the kitchen at six o'clock is pressed into duty. But work becomes play as the radio blasts music and all the cooks (adults, children and even the cat) begin to cut a rug. Before long the table is set with a feast of chicken and dumplings, green beans, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. First-time picture book authors Gelsanliter and Christian give new meaning to the phrase "shake and bake" with jaunty language and an infectious feel-good theme. Originally composed as song lyrics, the text features some catchy verses: "Dancin' in the kitchen/ Everyone's a chef/ But if the baby gets the shortcake/ Then there won't be any left!" But without the benefit of music, it is occasionally difficult to tell where the emphasis lies, and a few lines do not scan smoothly. Priceman (Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!) clearly relishes her subject matter and employs an exuberant menu of media, including paint, crayon and collage in her bursting-with-energy compositions. Characters swirl and sway across color-drenched backgrounds and Priceman offers a perspective from every angle of the kitchen, including a cat's eye-view. All in all, highly appetizing fare. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Spices don't have to come from jars - this family flavors its cooking with promenades and pirouettes. When the grandparents, parents, and children gather to make a meal, the first ingredient is music: ``Dancin' in the kitchen/The family's packed in tight/I think we may be/Dancin' in the kitchen all night.'' Priceman's illustrations are a bright salsa of mango, olive, blueberry, and tomato, and the stirring, dipping, mixing, and waltzing of the characters are contagious. Sometimes the rhyme is a little stodgy, but for families who like to have both the radio and the stove on high, this book cooks. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 3^-8. Written as a song for children, the rhymed and nearly rhymed text of this glowing picture book tells its own story simply: a family of grandparents, parents, and four children gather to make a dinner of chicken and dumplings, green beans, and strawberry shortcake. Grandma turns on the radio, and everyone pitches in, dancing to the music while chopping carrots, cleaning beans, and keeping the cat and the baby amused. It is utterly cheerful and winning: the whole family, taking a note from the 1980s Bangles pop song, troops into the kitchen walking sideways like ancient Egyptians. At another point, everyone dances around the baby with kitchen gear (colanders and bowls and cheese graters) on their heads. The text's playfulness is fully realized in the paintings, which have the beautiful matte colors and curved cutout shapes of a Matisse. Priceman, who illustrated the 1996 Caldecott Honor Book Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin, has planned her spreads as carefully as Matisse's Red Studio. In one, the curve of Mama's royal blue dress as she tosses beans into a pot echoes the curve of the cat dancing by Papa's feet. Bold patterns--stripes and plaids and swirls on the clothing and calligraphed lines on the furniture and woodwork--make the book dance, too. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Edition details

• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399230351
• ISBN 13: 9780399230356
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32