Delectable Detective

Dating back thousands of years, most tellers use riddles to welcome listeners into their stories.  These specifically-worded queries get our brains in gear, focus our concentration and inspire creativity.  Riddles allow us to participate in a treasure hunt without taking a step.  All we need to do is use our imaginations, expanding our thinking from the obvious to the obscure.  The sense of accomplishment in deciphering these puzzles is a rich reward too.

Readers are guaranteed another adventure full of fun and one smart cookie on the run in The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo (G. P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC, August 23, 2016) written by Laura Murray with illustrations by Mike Lowery.  There is sleuthing and solving.  May they do themselves proud.  It's game on for the Gingerbread Man and the elementary school crowd.

I woke to the sound of a rumbling
ROAR!
and 
hooting
and 
howling
and
growling
galore.

The children called out names as the teacher made noises and everyone's excitement grew.  Boarding the bus the hunt was revealed.  The animal clues were no longer concealed.  It was a point-to-point guide around the zoo.

Unraveling riddle number one was done with ease.  In fact Gingerbread Man was soon in a tight squeeze; barely escaping snack status thanks to a sneeze. When he chanced a look, his class was gone.

Knowing his friends needed to be found; the Gingerbread Man unriddled the remaining riddles, animal by animal, in habitats high, low, wet, square and round.  Some beasts were big, other critters were small.  He found them, almost all.  Figuring out the final puzzle, the Gingerbread Man ran as only he can.

Single-minded he moved until...a baby kangaroo came into view.  Now two were lost but the Gingerbread Man was brilliant and bold.  He knew what they were seeking was more valuable than gold.  Hoping and hopping they followed the way.  Happy hero and baby buddy, together, saved the day.


When Laura Murray sends the Gingerbread Man on a trip, we are in for a treat.  As we wind through the zoo, we are learning animal names too.  Her riddles blend into the rhyming rhythm of the narrative asking readers to participate in piecing the clues together.  Within the puzzles we learn about the animals' characteristics, baby names, and food.  Here are two more sample passages depicting Murray's skillful word play.

"HAVE A WILD DAY!" said the man at the front
as we pulled out our riddles to start on the hunt.

I jumped 
on the railing
to get a 
good look, 
and out popped her tongue
like a curvy blue hook.


The energy in the illustrations rendered

with pencil, traditional screen printing, and digital color

by Mike Lowery will have you ready to go to the zoo.  There's no doubt when looking at the front of the dust jacket (I'm working with an F & G) the Gingerbread Man is ready to romp.  The animals at the zoo look equally willing to share in his pleasant pursuits.  On the back, to the left, readers are given a hint of further play and a problem in three separate visuals.  On the title page the Gingerbread Man is swinging on a vine from the top through the title text, dangling above a bright, light blue and white map of the zoo.  A friendly rhino grins at the reader.

Lowery portrays his interpretation of the story in a series of bordered panels of varying sizes.  He sometimes uses one or two pages, edge to edge to focus on a particular point.  The narrative is usually shown in separate boxes, black on white, at the top or bottom of a panel.  Dialogue is, for the most part, in speech bubbles.

With a dot, circle, or curve of a line, Lowery is able to convey an array of emotion.  These girls, boys, animals and the Gingerbread Man are upbeat and fully animated.  Readers will find themselves smiling repeatedly.

One of my favorite of several illustrations is at the beginning of the story.  The Gingerbread Man wakes up to discover his teacher is the cause of the commotion.  She's looking fierce pretending to be a large cat.  Looking out his window, the Gingerbread Man is smiling at the discovery.  We can see all his details, his frosted brow, his pink and white hat, bow tie, red buttons and brown shorts.  He's one cute cookie!


This entry in the series is a surefire winner.  Everyone is going to love following their favorite smart cookie in The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo written by Laura Murray with illustrations by Mike Lowery.  I know you will hear requests of read it again and most likely pleas for treats, riddles and a trip to the zoo.  

To learn more about Laura Murray and Mike Lowery and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  At Laura Murray's site she has mentor text lesson plans, a reader's theater, a design a Gingerbread Man story template, a story sequencing page, zoo animal matching and a color the cover page.  Please take a moment to visit Scholastic's Ambassador for School Libraries, John Schumacher's blog, Watch. Connect. Read., for the book trailer premiere and a wonderful interview.  You will want to visit the Nerdy Book Club to read Laura Murray's recent guest post focusing on gifts and inspiration.  Laura Murray is a guest on Matthew Winner's podcast All The Wonders, Episode 278.  For my views about The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, The Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck, and The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas follow the links.

They're Getting Away Again...

When learning a story yourself or teaching storytelling to others, the key is not in recalling it word for word but finding the essence of the narrative.  To me this is what knowing it by heart means.  If the bare bones of the tale are timeless, if it has appeal across cultures to people regardless of their age, it will remain as long as there is memory.

When reading any of the earlier versions of The Gingerbread Man (which as far as I can tell is strictly an American adaptation on the runaway food motif from folklore)  he was made by a little old woman and a little old man who had no children of their own.  Since that time authors and illustrators have delighted readers with their individual interpretations and enhancements on the original.  Catch That Cookie! (Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, August 14, 2014) written by Hallie Durand with pictures by David Small is an extraordinarily tasty tale mixing all the necessary ingredients for a recipe readers will remember.

It was December, and Marshall's class had 
heard stories about runaway gingerbread
men all week long.

Marshall is far too sensible to believe a single word in any of these stories.  Anyone knows gingerbread men can't run.  They are cookies, plain and simple.  Cookies are to be eaten.

Today is the day his class is making their own gingerbread men.  Marshall is eager to begin, acting as the chief mixer of dough.  After the cookies are cut, the decorating begins in earnest.  Marshall adds extra raisins so his man has six eyes and a nifty silver ball belt.  Mrs. Gray checks and re-checks the oven door to make sure no cookies can escape.

The students minus Marshall are delirious with glee when the timer chimes and the opened oven reveals the cookies have vanished.  To make it even more exciting the gingerbread men have left not one but four clues.  The chase is on!  They are led up high, down low, and from the classroom into the gym and back again.

Marshall is sure there is a logical explanation.  Gingerbread men can't leave clues.  Certainly there is a reason the writing is so sloppy on the notes.  Certainly there is a reason he spies a single silver ball on the floor.    Certainly there is a reason he discovers hundreds of gingerbread footprints.  Could the answer be magic?  Marshall takes a leap of faith.  Will you?


The blend of unseen narrator with dialogue by Marshall, his classmates and Mrs. Gray, their teacher, along with the gingerbread clues are skillfully composed by Hallie Durand.  She understands the atmosphere in school classrooms and the conversations to be heard on a daily basis.  Disbelief, excitement, positive support, mutual respect, curiosity, teamwork and riddles resolved are so lively you expect to hear someone speaking at any moment.  The beat of the G-men hints heightens the story's cadence.  Here is a sample.

If you can find us, we'll be your snack,
But if you can't, we're never coming back.
We ran from the oven, we were bored and hot,
Now we're hiding in a big, black___.


Caldecott Medalist and two-time Caldecott Honor winner, David Small's illustrations are smile-inducing from dust jacket and book case to the closing endpapers.  Animated typography on the front jacket and case with Marshall jumping through the "O" to capture his runaway cookie announces the spirited story to follow.  On the back Small has a wanted poster for the missing G-man looking somewhat like a recipe card.  His descriptions, height, weight, eyes, taste, last seen and warning, are hilarious.  The opening and closing endpapers are created in shades of a cool wintry blue with abstract snowflakes scattered from edge to edge.  The only difference between the two is a small circular image on the left at the end.  It's of Marshall and that's all I am going to say.

No space is wasted by Small as he begins the story on the two-page illustration for the title.  Marshall and his classmates are seated on the story circle rug as Mrs. Gray reads a gingerbread man book aloud.  The verso and the first page visual zooms in on a perplexed Marshall.  Rendered in pen and ink, ink wash, watercolor and colored pencil each page is a blend of varied illustration sizes and text.  The design and layout flow flawlessly.

The care given to detail is exquisite; the snowflake pattern on the endpapers is duplicated on Mrs. Gray's smock which in turn matches the snowflakes hanging from the classroom ceiling, in each setting fine lines outline objects placed within different colored washes allowing for the characters' and the action to draw our attention.  The facial expressions, the shift in perspective and red lines used to focus on specific elements are pure perfection.

One of my favorite illustrations (in addition to the last two pages and the closing endpapers) is when Mrs. Gray opens the oven to find it empty.  She is wearing a completely shocked look.  Marshall's nine classmates are jumping for joy.  He is standing in stunned suspicious silence.  Small has used a light gingerbread-colored wash to emphasize the classroom area but then has it frame his characters. This is definitely a picture packed with emotion.


Every time I read this book I begin and end with a smile.  In fact I never stop page after page.  Catch That Cookie! written by Hallie Durand with pictures by David Small will have you sniffing the air for a whiff of spice and molasses.  You might want to have cookies handy when reading this aloud or even silently to yourself.  Get ready for a chorus of read it again when you close the cover.

To explore the other works of Hallie Durand and David Small please follow the links to their websites embedded in their names.  Here is a link to an interesting article,  The History of Gingerbread, which includes a recipe.  I have created a Padlet of other books for you to use. (The link is here.) If you know of more, please leave the titles in the comments.

Created with Padlet