cover image Peanut Butter and Jelly

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Nadine Bernard Westcott. Dutton Books, $13.99 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-525-44317-9

A simple popular rhyme about that childhood culinary favorite, peanut butter and jelly, becomes rich fare indeed in this buoyant picture book. Chantlike verses set forth the making of a sandwich from start to finisha process that is imaginatively extended through Westcott's talent for the comically outsized and absurd. Her chefstwo hungry children, an energetic dog and cat, five exuberant elephants and one jolly adultconstruct a sandwich like no other. Their bread is so enormous that a saw is required to slice it; their jelly comes from a bathtubful of grapes stamped and squashed to the desired consistency by elephants. This fully satisfying treat is completed with one page of clapping patterns, as well as hand and foot motions to accompany the rhymes. Ages 2-5. (September)