HELLO EVERYBODY!!!
I hope you have all had wonderful, relaxing, enjoyable, sun-soaked, family-filled, back porch cookout, hammock-lounging, s’more-making, firefly-chasing, star-gazing, memorable, happy summers!
I know the return of Perfect Picture Books means summer is over, but isn’t it wonderful to see each other again?! I have missed you all!
We have so much to look forward to this fall! Would You Read It will be back next week. We have finishing prizes for the blog tours. There will be episodes of Oh Susanna (if anyone sends in questions!) and Short & Sweets. The annual writing contests are just around the corner. Wow!
But Rome wasn’t built in a day! 🙂
So for now, let’s just do Perfect Picture Books!
I know many of you continued PPBF throughout the summer, so anyone who would like to add their summer titles with post-specific links to this week or next week’s PPBF list is MOST welcome to! It would be great to have them ALL on the master list!
But now, without further ado, I am absolutely thrilled to present today’s Perfect Picture Book, brand new from my talented friend, Penny!

Title: A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale
Written By: Penny Parker Klostermann
Illustrated By: Ben Mantle
Random House Books For Young Readers, September 5, 2017, fiction
Suitable For Ages: 3-7
Themes/Topics: fractured fairy tale, perseverance, humor, cooking
Opening: “Although William lived in the magical land of fairy tales, he preferred pastries to princesses, kitchens to kingdoms, and recipes to the Royal Reporter.”
Brief Synopsis: William struggles to fit into the magical land of fairy tales, more interested in cooking up fabulous dishes than fantastical stories. Will he find his happily ever after?
Links To Resources: invent, cook & serve your own magical fairy tale recipes using fairy tale ingredients (Snow White’s apple, Cinderella’s pumpkin, the Three Bears’ porridge, etc.); set up a fairy tale restaurant (like The Brick House and The Three Bears Bistro in the story) with a colorful sign and beautifully set tables and serve your customers; write articles about fairy tale characters or interview famous fairy tale characters or create recipes for the Royal Reporter; read this book with other fractured fairy tales like Little Red Writing by Joan Holub, Hensel And Gretel Ninja Chicks by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Rebecca Gomez, and The True Story of The Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and discuss the different ways the authors fractured the tales; write your own fractured fairy tale!
Why I Like This Book: This story is creative and entertaining, full of fun language and delightful details. While most fractured fairy tales are a new twist on one familiar tale, this story plays cleverly with a whole bunch, including The Three Bears, Snow White, Cinderella, The Gingerbread Man, Jack and The Beanstalk and others, tying them all together with a boy who loves to cook and create recipes. Young readers will relate to William who means well and whose heart is in the right place, but who still manages to do the wrong thing! Haven’t we all been there?! 🙂 The art is colorful, engaging, full of fun details and a perfect complement to the story. All around a delicious treat of a read…(spoiler alert :)) topped off with a happily ever after!!!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂
AND!!! This just in!!! The lovely Penny is offering a giveaway of a copy of A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale! Leave a comment below by Sunday September 10 at 5 PM Eastern and you will be entered in the totally random raffle for the book!!! 🙂
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!
(I’m out of practice with this, so here’s hoping I didn’t mess it up!!!)
Have a wonderful wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂 So glad to be able to say, “See you all next week!” 🙂
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