Mix a pancake, stir a pancake, pop it in the pan; fry the pancake, toss the pancake, catch it if you can! With Pancake Day just around the corner, BooksForTopics founder Alison has picked out five great children’s books all about pancakes!
Mr Wolf wants to make pancakes but he is going to need some help. Underconfident in his ability to read the recipe, shop for ingredients, understand measures and mix up the batter, Mr Wolf calls on a host of familiar fairy tale friends for help. When his friends refuse to help, Mr Wolf is left to figure it out all by himself. But will they change their tune when it comes to eating time? Young readers love spotting familiar faces in this humorous pancake-day take on the Little Red Hen story with its own subversive twist at the end.
There seems to be a universal appeal to children’s stories about food with a mind of its own and this one’s a version of a story I fondly remember capturing my own imagination as a child. In a Gingerbread Man style escapade, one pancake escapes from a hungry family’s breakfast time and begins a runaway adventure that draws in a host of animals along the way. This illustrated version has simple text designed for younger readers.
A boldly-illustrated interactive book that brings the fun into reading a sequence of instructions for making pancakes. The book’s interactive elements invite the reader to become involved with every step of the recipe; lift the flap to open ingredients, turn the wheel to mix the batter, pull the tab to ladle the batter into the pan and – of course – flip the pancake to cook the other side! A great book for classrooms – second only to frying up the real thing.
Pancakes are eaten all around the world, with different variations, traditions and names in different countries. This story is set in Kenya and features the spiced pancakes shared at an unplanned community meal (there’s a recipe in the back of the book, too). When Adika hears that Mama is making pancakes, he is so happy that he invites everyone he sees to his house to eat them. He reassures Mama that they will have enough flour, but Mama is worried. A heartening story about the power of community, with plenty of added information about daily life in one Kenyan village.
Among his more well-known stories about hungry caterpillars and mixed-up chameleons, Eric Carle also wrote about pancakes! This story follows an American boy called Jack who goes through the process of making his own pancakes, including milking the cow and cutting the wheat. A useful story for tracing where the different ingredients come from.
review
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
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Curriculum links (if relevant)
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Any other comments