A Tale of Friendship And Food

When the word holiday is spoken many different things spring into many different people's minds.  One word which most will agree is associated with holidays is food.  Special foods are prepared according to cultural customs, family traditions and the desire to try something new.

With the dates of winter celebrations approaching fast, people are gathering recipes and ingredients for recreating or making memorable meals or delicious desserts.  For some the food prepared and served during these festivities are only eaten one or two days during an entire 365 days.  When you think and remember these foods, they bring to mind only this time of year.  Wintercake (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, October 15, 2019) written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins is a lost and found story.  It's about more than losing items.  It's about losing faith in individuals.

Where can it be? thought Thomas.
Maybe I left it outside.

Thomas looked and looked.  It was gone.  His friend Lucy, a cardinal, asked him what was missing.  His basket of dried fruits, apples, berries, plums, apricots, grapes and cherries is nowhere to be found.  It has vanished.  How is Thomas going to make his Winter's Eve treat, wintercake?  The celebration won't be the same without it.

As a snow squall begins Lucy leaves, hoping Thomas finds his basket.  He hopes Lucy stays safe.  The snow thickens until Lucy can't see anything.  She crashes and falls.  In the middle of a worrying thought, she smells something wondrous, something delicious and promising warmth.  Through the swirling snow, she spots the door to a tea room.

As Lucy sips tea, conversations drift around her.  Most are focused on the weather, except for one.  She hears the words, basket, dried-up fruits and wintercake.  Lucy feels anger rising in her.  She pays for her refreshments and follows the wily thief with Thomas's basket out the door.  Imagine her surprise when this figure arrives at Thomas's home and returns the basket still filled with the fruit.

Lucy quickly goes to Thomas's door and once inside, tells him the entire story.  She is ashamed.  They decide to make the stranger a wintercake.  It is magnificent but they have a dilemma.  Where does this good Samaritan live?  The trail, they discover, is filled with challenges.  As the sky darkens around them, they realize they are lost and far, far away from home.  In the next few moments several incidents forge a new friendship; a friendship with a foundation made of stories . . . and wintercake.



It begins with a mystery, a tantalizing invitation by Lynne Rae Perkins readers will be unable to resist.  With the appearance of Lucy, her chat with Thomas and the snowstorm, the tension increases.  Throughout these opening pages Lynne Rae Perkins uses dialogue with adept skill, giving readers a greater personal involvement.  We also see bits of humor in the words Thomas uses to describe his state of mind.

Along with the narrative and dialogue, from time to time, words, spoken or thought, are included in speech bubbles.  These heighten the strength of the story and the growing humor. We willingly find ourselves more and more a part of this tale.  Here are two passages.

Thomas drizzled the white icing over it, like snow on a lumpy hillside.  He lifted it onto a pretty plate and tied a ribbon around it.
"I've thought of something," said Lucy.
"What?" said Thomas.

"We don't know where this guy lives," said Lucy.  "We don't even know his name."
"Hmm," said Thomas.  "That's true."

The two friends looked at one another.  They looked at the wintercake, on its plate with its ribbon.  They looked down at their shadows, blue shapes on the snow.  A trail of crispy footprints led from where they stood, away through the forest.
"That's it! cried Lucy.  "We can follow his footprints!"
"Yes!" said Thomas.  "Off we go!"
And off they went.  At first, it was easy.


For those living in the northern hemisphere or for those experiencing a wild winter storm tonight, one of many this season, the scene on the front of the dust jacket addresses the weather with a sure knowledge, but notice the three friends skipping merrily through the wind and snow.  To place them on the top of the wintercake, baked, frosted and placed on a pretty plate, is saying with those for whom we hold affection, let us celebrate and enjoy this delectable dessert.  Let us banish the chill and warm our hearts with food and friends.  The contrast of color choices is marvelous.  The frosting and fruits are varnished.

To the left, on the back the canvas is a darker blue.  Framed by a multitude of tiny snowflakes, bare tree branches and small evergreens is a poem speaking about the essence of this story.  It talks of misunderstanding, loss, mistakes and finding a holiday home.

On the book case we are inside Thomas's home.  On the front is an oval window.  Outside we can see Thomas, Lucy and Tobin taking a toboggan ride.  The pretty blue and white plate is empty except for wintercake crumbs.  It is resting on a red and white checked tablecloth patterned in snowflakes.  On the wall of the house is a note numbered 10.  It reads:

Share with friends.

To the left, on the back of the case, are more notes (four) numbered one through nine, plus one extra.  They are placed among ingredients and utensils used for making wintercake.  For eager readers, these notes are the list of ingredients and steps for making wintercake.  These are all on the tablecloth in Thomas's home.

The opening and closing endpapers are a rich royal blue.  On the title page Lynne Rae Perkins begins the story with Thomas setting the basket down to taste the first snowflakes.  On the verso page the stranger (Tobin) is picking up the forgotten basket.  On the dedication page, Lucy is flying through falling leaves and snowflakes.

Lynne Rae Perkins shifts her illustration sizes to enhance and place emphasis on her narrative.  She begins with a series of smaller ones on white as Thomas looks for his basket of fruit.  She follows these with a full-page picture and two smaller horizontal illustrations on the next two pages.  Then readers are treated to a two-page image of the increasing storm, a sad Thomas and Lucy leaving.  Each visual heightens her words and their emotional impact, even her humor.

Lynne Rae Perkins uses white space with excellence to frame many of her illustrations and to increase the chill everyone feels during winter weather.  Also, shades of the royal blue shown on the endpapers finds its way into the interior illustrations, elevating each scene.  Readers will connect with the characters through their thoughts and their actions as displayed by their facial expressions and body postures.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is on a full page.  Lucy is perched on a bright green rolled blanket on Thomas's red-frame sofa with two-tone blue plaid cushions.  Thomas is seated at the other end.  He is softly smiling.  Lucy is completely upset and talking about her misjudgment of the stranger.  The basket of dried fruit is on a round coffee table.  This is on a round rag rug.  The colors of the fruit and the colors in the rug are nearly identical.  Next to the sofa is a small table.  On it a lamp painted with roses glows.  Thomas has wainscoting in this room and a small circular window.


This is a story to take away the chill on a wintry day, evening or at bedtime.  Wintercake written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins is a gentle tale of how misunderstandings can lead to the best life has to offer us if we reach out and right a wrong, even if the injured party is unaware.  Lynne Rae Perkins's blend of text, dialogue, thoughts and glorious illustrations will make this a much-requested title.  You'll need to have a copy in your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Lynne Rae Perkins and her other wonderful work, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  She has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  This book is showcased at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, at Picture Book Builders in a post by author Pat Zietlow Miller and at Jama's Alphabet Soup by author and blogger, Jama Rattigan.

Master Mentor

There are those things which make perfect sense but they're not lodged in our minds until one singular moment of clarity.  From that time forward we can replay the particular event in perfect detail or listen to a phrase as if it's a mantra.  It can define who we are.

Following a completely different train of thought, perhaps you've read about something.  You've heard it discussed.  You've seen it in person.  Until you experience it yourself, the truth of it does not fully register.

For me the event was a Sunday sermon.  The words spoken were "When you're through learning, you're through."  What I had read about, heard about and even seen was the unbreakable connection between a dog and their human.  It was not until I spent more than fifteen years with a constant canine companion that I fully understood how much learning could be shared.

It's hard to say who is the more fortunate, a dog or a human, when they first meet and their lives become entwined.  Frank And Lucky Get Schooled (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, June 14, 2016) written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins presents a totally new perspective on life's lessons courtesy of one pooch pal.  It's an unforgettable educational approach.

One day when Frank could not win for losing, he got Lucky.
And one day when Lucky was lost and found, he got Frank.

This was the beginning of true learning for one dog and his boy.  It could be said it was love at first sight.  It could also be said running like the wind and consuming mass amounts of food were traits they held in common.

From that time forward subjects normally taught within the confines of a classroom setting became everyday facts of life for the duo.  Lucky's curiosity lead to several lessons in science.  A romp around their property taught Frank about plants as he was removing burdock from Lucky's fur.  And the skunk incident guided us to not one but two new branches of science.  Astronomy was one of them. (I'm not divulging any more than this.  I'm laughing too much.)

Of course back on the topic of food math came to mind.  This did in fact involve a dreaded story problem but the results were a canine idea of heaven on earth.  Biscuits might have been mentioned.  An examination of Frank's bed at night revealed with accuracy an exploration of fractions.  With surprising insights math (and yes, food) took us to history.

The relationship of dogs and humans and some famous dogs coming to the rescue of humans were noted with the creation of drawings and monuments.  These circumstances happened on various dates in the timeline of human history.  In the case of Lucky and Frank the past was moments ago and it certainly demonstrated there could be more than one interpretation of the truth.  HA!

With ease and the help of the family cat, Lucky influenced Frank's art assignment.  With a change in perspective, a dog's silhouette appeared on the horizon line of the family acreage.  If you will recall running was a shared interest of the twosome.  When Lucky decided to take off and explore without Frank, geography and maps became important.  What developed next was unexpected.  But that was and is when the best subjects are learned; some of them lasting a lifetime.


No matter how many times you read this book, you will marvel at the thought process involved in creating this narrative.  If you've been lucky enough to have a dog share their life with you, you'll wonder why your mind did not make the fabulous connections found in this story written by Lynne Rae Perkins.  From personal observations this gifted author links classroom subjects to real life with a great deal of humor.

From science to math to history to art to geography and maps and to the final subject this tale flows seamlessly causing readers to realize, if they did not know it before, how intricately woven together everything is.  Perkins's sentences are conversational, easily understood and enlightening without being, even for a single second, dull.  That's the way life with a dog is...never dull...always illuminative.  Another technique Perkins employs is the blend of an unseen narrator, thought bubbles, and speech balloons for dialogue.  Here is a sample passage.

In Reading, he was best at the listening part. He could listen
more than anyone else in the family.  He could listen for hours,
even when Frank wasn't reading aloud.

How much more could he listen? How many hours?

Wait a minute---aren't those Math questions?


Pen and ink and watercolor paint were used to prepare the full-color art we see on the matching dust jacket and book case.  The blackboard and chalk background highlight the lively images, the larger one of Frank and Lucky running on the front and the smaller illustrations to the left, on the back.  Each of the six circles features a subject.  Be prepared to laugh loud at the comments and captured moments, each different than those seen in the interior of the title.  A cheerful yellow covers the opening and closing endpapers.

Lynne Rae Perkins places nine small pictures of varying shapes and sizes across the verso and dedication pages which set the scenario for the opening of the story.  She continues this with six small squares across the top of two pages conveying without words the events leading to the eventual meeting of Frank and Lucky at the rescue shelter.  This meeting is depicted in two separate pictures at the bottom of the two pages.

In the remainder of the book the images are loosely framed like memories. Soft delicate details create very realistic portraits of the individuals and the settings.  Perkins incorporates dashes for travel, fractions and measurement, lines with illustrative pictures and specific names (as with the burdock), yes and no boxes for scientific experiments, and multiple choice answers in her illustrations as if they are meant to be there.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is for the text above.  It spans two pages. Outside a window you can see it's a sunny winter day.  Golden light comes through the window shining on Frank and Lucky on the couch.  Frank is leaning against the right arm reading a book.  Lucky is sleeping with his body stretched over a pillow, on his back with his legs sprawled in complete contentment.  Around the room our eyes see pictures on the wall, a filled bookcase with a globe on top, a lamp and table, several chairs, a rug spread on a wood floor with Frank's shoes tossed there and stairs leading to a second story.  In a word, it's perfect.


In her words and pictures Lynne Rae Perkins gives to readers a book, Frank And Lucky Get Schooled, which like the story itself holds endless possibilities.  You can certainly read and enjoy it for the humorous anecdotes but the "what-ifs" will start to scroll through your mind.  Read this one repeatedly, it gets better and better.  And be sure to read it aloud, preferably with a room full of guys and gals.

To learn more about Lynne Rae Perkins and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  If you stop by TeachingBooks.net or NPR Books you can listen to Lynne and then Lynne and her daughter talk about this book.  At The Horn Book this book was brought up for discussion at Calling Caldecott.

To The Core...

Thirty years ago a community in Michigan began what has become an annual tradition, Applefest, held on the second weekend in October each and every year in downtown, Charlevoix.  The street is lined with orchard vendors displaying as many different shades and varieties of apples as Mother Nature painting her colors across the surrounding forests.  It is a celebration of a fruit spread through the creation of nurseries by a man commonly known as Johnny Appleseed.

Yesterday, two hundred, thirty-eight years ago, a man named John Chapman was born.  His status in American history has grown to that of hero.  Seed by Seed:  The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman (Greenwillow Books) is a labor of love by author, Esme Raji Codell and author/illustrator, Lynne Rae Perkins.


In a present day city we see a girl and boy looking out a window with all the changes from progress reflected outside in the cityscape and inside their home.  As the narrator speaks the two find themselves (as we are) transported back to an era with a slower pace; wagons instead of cars, dirt roads, axes not chainsaws for the cutting of wood, fires for warmth.  Walking through the snowy woods the two see ahead into a new season, a season of beginnings.

From the date of John Chapman's birth we are fast forwarded to how he viewed his purpose, how he lived his life and what it means to all of us today.  Shown to us is a man who walked the talk:

Use what you have.
Share what you have.
Respect nature.
Try to make peace where there is war.
You can reach your destination by taking small steps.

For these five beliefs readers are provided with supportive pieces from this man's daily life.  Chapman's clothing was hand-me-down or made from coffee and potato sacks.  He shared his books by ripping them up by chapters to circulate to people he met on his travels.  Can you imagine the kind of man who would save mosquitoes from the flames of a fire?

In order to protect the Native Americans and settlers from one another he perfected a plan for peace.  Chapman may have taken small steps but he covered large areas; his nurseries stretched for more than one hundred thousand square miles.  Where are the boy and girl to whom we were first introduced?

Seed by seed, deed by deed.

Will they, will we, make a difference today as John Chapman did hundreds of years ago?


Esme Raji Codell, a proud honorary member of the Johnny Appleseed Society, composes her discussion of this man through poetic prose that allows readers to step through a window into his world.  She aptly compares our current world with the world of John Chapman using sensory sentences.

Maybe you could catch the creaking of a wagon wheel,
straining against the ruts in the road...

What she has chosen to share with her readers is exactly what we need to know to make this man alive for us today, what makes him someone we would want to know and what gives him a prominent place in our past.


Using watercolor and gouache Lynne Rae Perkins's rich illustrations provide the ideal depiction of the change from present day to the past.  The shifting of time from an apartment building to Johnny Appleseed sitting on a fallen tree in front of a fire, snacking on an apple, flows with purposeful ease.  Altering between single-centered illustrations on a page, two-page spreads, full-page bleeds and varied smaller groupings, Perkins matches Codell's pacing.

To bring more realism to her pictures Lynne Rae Perkins has experimented with other materials.  Her endeavors to transport readers to the here and now of then are notable.  In the section on Use what you have, the background for the text is burlap.  To highlight Share what you have an old book separated into chapters showcases the words.  A detailed woodcarving becomes a broad eye-catching heading. A breathtaking, exquisite embroidery spans two pages to picture the final phrase.


Esme Raji Codell and Lynne Rae Perkins have created an informative, thoughtful portrayal of a man who made his mark in their title, Seed by Seed:  The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman.  As part of the title verso Codell has included a list of selected resources and acknowledgments.  On the final page is an activity that could be done in the classroom or at home along with a recipe for apple pie.

Be sure to visit each of the websites linked to the author's and illustrator's names at the beginning of this post.  Their discussions about this book are wonderful.

Positively Perfect Perkins

As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth is Lynne Rae Perkins latest novel.  It is definitely going on Mrs. Culver's Top Twenty list for next year.  As I write this I am smiling as I look at the cover, read through the chapter headings again or recall the characters and their exploits. 

To begin sixteen year old Ry bound for summer camp is riding the rails through Montana.  When the train stops for some minor mechanical repair Ry decides to disembark.

Wait a minute.  Was the---had the train just moved?  Ry turned his head to look at it straight on, but it sat on the tracks, as still as the lumpy brown hill he was climbing.  As still as the grass that baked in gentle swells as far as he could see and the air in the empty blue sky.  He must have imagined it.  Nothing had moved.  Everything was the same.  but there it was again.  Was it because he blinked?  Maybe it was the water in his eyes; it had wobbled up his vision.  He picked out a post alongside the tracks, directly below the line where the logo on the train changed from red to blue.  As he watched, the red and the blue shifted almost imperceptibly to the right above the post.  Then perceptibly.  The train was moving. 

Oh, yes, Ry is stranded in the middle of nowhere Montana with his backpack still on the train. He left the train to call his grandfather after finally reading a letter from the camp which stated:

  We are so sorry.  The Summer ArchaeoTrails Program will not take place.  A statistically improbable number of things have gone wrong and the camel's back is broken.  Your money will be fully refunded as soon as I sell my car and remortgage my house. 

Gazing out at the wide-open space, wondering just how he is going to find a place with people and after taking stock of what he has in his pockets, Ry remarks,

But at least I have my health.

It is just this kind of wit, humor and dialogue that moves Ry's story forward with readers happily in tow eager to see what new unlikely event will befall Ry. 

Of course his Grandfather, who is at the family home in Wisconsin taking care of their two dogs, Peg and Olie, is not answering his calls.  Why is that?  Taking the dogs for a walk turned into a race through the woods after the pair sighted a doe only to have the earth beneath Grandpa Lloyd's feet fall into an eight foot sinkhole twenty feet wide. The fall has left Grandpa wandering with a concussion and memory loss.


Where are Ry's parents?  They are sailing around the Caribbean with their own mishaps, the least of which includes the theft of their cell phone by a local monkey. 

Peg and Olie are having an adventure of their own that the reader shares via comic book style graphics.

By walking to the nearest town, Ry meets Del.  Del is a self-made, self-employed, jack-of-all-trades, well traveled kind of guy.   He is the bridge that provides the connection between all these incidents.  It is Del that volunteers to take Ry to Wisconsin to solve the puzzle of Grandpa Lloyd not answering the phone.  It is Del that has a friend with an airplane that can take them to an island in the Caribbean.  It is Del's  former girlfriend, for whom he still has deep feelings, that has a boat that can take them to the island of St. Jude where he can hopefully locate his parents.

Each of  the little additional occurrences that transpire as they journey toward this goal are more far fetched than their predecessors.   As a reader one finds oneself shaking their head and asking, "What are the chances of that happening?"


Lynne Rae Perkins delightful illustrations peppered throughout the book add to the cohesiveness of her writing about these likable characters and the outlandish happenings that fate lays before them.  There is nothing quite so fine as a slice of life from Perkins' finely crafted pie.