We're Making Breakfast for Mother - Softcover

Shirley Neitzel; Nancy Winslow Parker

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590227947 ISBN 13: 9780590227940

Publisher: Scholastic, 1998

Synopsis

It's Mother's Day, and two children are preparing a breakfast feast for their unsuspecting mother -- to be served in bed, of course. Nothing comes out quite as intended, so it's Mother to the rescue in this extraordinary rebus book.

About this title

About the Author

In Her Own Words...

"My earliest memories are of my mother reading aloud. A lot of characters from books were real to me, as our family ritual included bedtime stories for me and chapters from longer books for the older children.

"I wanted to read for myself, so I often lay on the kitchen floor while my mother worked and I 'read' to her from memory. Soon I realized I could tell the story more exactly if I looked carefully at the words on the page. Spelling aloud the words I couldn't figure out, I worked my way through enough stories to satisfy me until our nightly reading session.

"I was eager to start kindergarten, and the day finally came when I walked the mile from our small farm in the western part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula to a one-room school. I watched eagerly as the teacher gave each child a stack of books. When she gave me only one, I was disappointed, but I turned it sideways and read the parts that said 'To the Teacher.' Then I carefully followed the directions. When my teacher said she wanted to talk to my mother, I thought I was in trouble, but it turned out she thought I should work with the first graders. That made me happy because they each had more than one book.

"My love of reading continued. In sixth grade I went to the 'big' school in town. The school had a room with one whole wall filled with books. Immediately, I decided to read every book in that library. A story I wrote was chosen for our school newspaper. I enjoyed people telling me they liked 'My Life as a Pencil.'

"In high school I won some essay contests, so I thought of a career in journalism. But I became a teacher instead so I could continue reading wonderful books for children. I encouraged my students to write, and sometimes I shared my writing with them.

"While planning one assignment for my students, I played with the pattern of the nursery rhyme 'The House That Jack Built.' My students laughed in the right places, and friends encouraged me to send my rhyme to an editor. It took a lot of courage to do that, but I sent it to Greenwillow. The editor-in-chief, Susan Hirschman, liked my rhyme, and chose Nancy Winslow Parker to illustrate it. Nancy drew little pictures to replace some of the words. The result was The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, the first in our series of rhyme-and-rebus books.

"Usually I start with a topic and decide how the story should end. Then I write little snippets of rhyme and, like putting a puzzle together, figure out how each part connects to another. Before I finish, the story changes many times.

"Sometimes when I read my books to children, one of them says, 'Read it again.' I think that's the best reward a writer can have."

Nancy Winslow Parker is the author and illustrator of numerous books for children, including Locks, Crocs, and Skeeters; Bugs, written by Joan Wright Richards; and Money, Money, Money. She lives in New York City and Mantoloking, New Jersey.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2. The rhymes and rebuses in Neitzel and Parker's books give them child appeal and make them good tools to teach and reinforce reading. They are also very effective models for creative-writing instruction. Most important, though, they are good, happy-ending jaunts at storytime. We're Making Breakfast for Mother features Dad, two children, and a dog and cat preparing a breakfast of cereal and toast, which is served on a silver tray with a vase of flowers. Although the story is predictable, promising disaster before the end ("Here's whole wheat toast, a little too brown, with raspberry jelly...Oops! Jelly-side down"), children won't mind knowing what's coming. Mother takes it all in good spirits. "We'll put on our jackets and go for a hike, since I don't want to see what the kitchen looks like." Parker's simple, watercolor-and-colored pencil illustrations are similar to those in The Bag I'm Taking to Grandma's (1995), The Jacket I Wear in the Snow (1989), and The Dress I'll Wear to the Party (1992, all Greenwillow). The characters are real, down to the dog who gets the toast and the cat who gets the cereal. Everybody enjoys the finale when Dad, Mother, and the children go to Joe's Cafe for pancakes. A great selection, particularly for Mother's Day!?Betty Teague, Blythe Academy of Languages, Greenville, SC
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0590227947
• ISBN 13: 9780590227940
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32