Thursday, September 17, 2020

Virtual Blog Tour: Short & Sweet (Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Book 4) by Josh Funk


Short & Sweet (Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Book #4)
by Josh Funk, illustrated by Brendon Kearney
 Sterling Children's Books, 2020, 40 pages

Hi and welcome to my stop on the Short & Sweet Virtual Blog Tour. Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are back with a brand new adventure and my young readers couldn't be happier. After All, they are all fans of the first three books about this sweet duo. Their latest adventure begins as they are preparing for a tea party with Baron von Waffle. As they finish though, Lady Pancake feels achy and Sir French Toast looks pale. Are they going stale?


Luckily, Baron von Waffle has just what they need - a visit to Professor Biscotti's lab for a little despoiling. The three friends go off down Artichoke Road to Professor Biscotti's lab, where they are strapped into her despoiling machine:  


But when things don't go as planned, and Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are turned into children, the two of them take one look at Baron von Waffle, whom they now think is a giant scary monster Waffle wanting to eat them and take off, running for their lives. 


Can Baron von Waffle and Professor Biscotti figure out how to get Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast back to the lab so they can be changed back into themselves?

This book is, exactly as the title says, short and sweet. And told in a rhyme scheme that works all the way to the end, paired with a fun vocabulary and some very clever puns. I read this to my young readers, who are, as I've said, big fans of Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast. And Short & Sweet has already become an instant new favorite. One of my kiddos did comment on Baron von Waffle telling his friends they looked gruesome and hideous and what a mean thing that was to say to them. So it's no wonder Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast thought he was a big scary monster after they had been turned into children. Another kiddo thought it was cool that they ended up in the library reading books at one point and enraptured by stories (but what does enraptured mean? they asked). And that is one of the things I liked about this book. There were vocabulary words to learn that were not usual to children's picture books.

Brendan Kearney's humorous illustrations are the perfect compliment to the story, done in a palette of warm colors, often slightly reminiscent of maple syrup. In fact, I was sure I smelled maple syrup each time I read this story. Which, by the way, is a perfect read aloud.

All in all, Short & Sweet is another successful addition to the Lady Pancake/Sir French Toast body of work and is sure to be a hit with all young readers.

Don't forget to read and reread the earlier adventures of Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast and all their friends:


Be sure to visit all the other stops on the Long & Savory 5-week Virtual Tour for Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast's latest adventures:


This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was gratefully received from the author, Josh Funk

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