Cook-A-Doodle-Doo! by Janet Stevens, illustrated by Susan Stevens Crummel

Cook a Doodle Doo! by Janet Stevens, illustrated by Susan Stevens Crummel

Rating: 3.5 stars

Here's the skinny on this book: It's a twist on the classic Chicken Little story, where the rooster wants someone to help him make strawberry shortcake but the animals don't want to help him, just as they didn't want to help his Granny.  But then three unlikely heroes step forward and offer to help--a turtle, iguana, and pot-bellied pig.  These animals are pretty clueless in the kitchen, so they do silly things like trying to beat an egg with a baseball bat.  But their can-do attitude is great, even when pot-bellied pig eats the whole cake when it's done because "I"m the taster!  I was just tasting it!"

Hmm...that's what my husband says about the cookies I bake...in-ter-est-ing....

Anyway, on the side of many pages are informative paragraphs about baking.  The authors teach you from where teaspoons and tablespoons are derived, what an ingredient actually is, and stuff like that.

I had trouble finding books on strawberries.  A friend of mine suggested this one, so I checked it out from our wonderful local library, and it has been traveling between the library shelf and Lorelei's room for the past week.  Ben isn't very interested; I read it to him once and actually thought the book was too long.  He has a good attention span, but this book is...looooong.

But then Lorelei saw it, grabbed it, and sat reading it on the sofa.  She laughed out loud at a few parts.  And for days she was obviously thinking about the book, trying to get the humor in it.  It was as if she realized she should be laughing, but she didn't exactly get the joke.  Out of the blue she asked: "Why did the iguana want to beat the eggs with a baseball bat?"

So the book is pretty good (thanks for the suggestion, Colleen!), though a little long for those with still-growing attention spans.  But for the little readers who are ready for more and have a good sense of humor developing in their little minds--those who are eager to chuckle at silly things (I know all of us in this house fall in this category!)--this is a good book to check out.