Miss Mabel's Table

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A cumulative rhyming book, a counting book and a pancake recipe all in one, this zippy title keeps readers guessing until the end. In the first spread, Miss Mabel is seen rising to a 5:00 a.m. alarm; facing the illustration is a cheery, if ungrammatical, verse: ``This is one frying pan, big and bold, / waiting to cook on the kitchen stove, / but now, so quiet and empty and cold, / sits on Miss Mabel's table.'' But the relationship between the right and left pages grows mysterious as Mabel leaves her home, buys a newspaper and gets on the elevated train; all the while, more and more ingredients pile on her table. Eventually the two worlds intersect as Miss Mabel reaches her destination, her diner (named Miss Mabel's Table), where she mixes together all the ingredients to serve pancakes to 10 happy customers. Chandra's playful text profits from Grover's ( The Accidental Zucchini ) funky, childlike paintings. With his wacky perspectives and bright chunks of color, he speaks the same deliciously uncommon language as the author. Ages 5-8. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

K-Gr 2-Morning has arrived at Miss Mabel's Table restaurant. The verse begins, ``This is one frying pan, big and bold,/waiting to cook on the kitchen stove,/but now, so quiet and empty and cold,/sits on Miss Mabel's table.'' Then ingredients (e.g., 2 teaspoons of salt, 3 glasses of milk, 4 cups of flour, 5 eggs, 6 pinches of cinnamon, 7 strawberries, 9 spoons of sugar, 10 dashes of yeast) magically appear on the table in a clever, cumulative rhyme. Concurrently, on the opposite side of each double-page spread, another story unwinds through Grover's full-color acrylic paintings. Mabel wakes up, feeds her cat, leaves for work, bicycles to the train station, stops to buy a newspaper, and arrives at her restaurant. Here the stories merge as the woman mixes, adds, scrapes, and stirs the ingredients to prepare a delicious pancake breakfast for 10 customers. This is a clever effort-not only is it a counting book and a sequential picture story, but it provides a fanciful lesson on making pancakes. Children are going to eat it up.-Dot Minzer, North Barrington School, Barrington, IL

Elizabeth Bush

It's 5:10 a.m. Miss Mabel reaches for the alarm clock beside her bed. By 5:45, she's dressed and feeding the cat. As the pages turn, the sky brightens, and she scoots down the street on her yellow bicycle, then rides the elevated train, stops at the newsstand, and unlocks her restaurant. Meanwhile, on facing pages, ingredients have been collecting on a cheery kitchen table. A cumulative rhyme enumerates, "These are the glasses, one, two, three, brimming with milk, that quietly stand near the teaspoons, one and two, that lie near the frying pan, big and bold." And what will Mabel cook? Strawberry pancakes made from 10 ingredients and served to 10 patrons whom we have already seen working hard at their early morning jobs. The naive, bright acrylic paintings are as tantalizing as the text; activity in the neighborhood and bustle in the kitchen build steadily. The town, asleep under the stars on the title page, is wide awake and pancake-fortified by the closing double-page spread. This is a delicious addition to titles on the ever-popular pancake theme.