We're Making Breakfast for Mother

From School Library Journal Kindergarten-Grade 2. The rhymes and rebuses in Neitzel and Parker's books give them child appeal and make them good tools to teach and reinforce reading. They are also very effective models for creative-writing instruction. Most important, though, they are good, happy-ending jaunts at storytime. We're Making Breakfast for Mother features Dad, two children, and a dog and cat preparing a breakfast of cereal and toast, which is served on a silver tray with a vase of flowers. Although the story is predictable, promising disaster before the end ("Here's whole wheat toast, a little too brown, with raspberry jelly...Oops! Jelly-side down"), children won't mind knowing what's coming. Mother takes it all in good spirits. "We'll put on our jackets and go for a hike, since I don't want to see what the kitchen looks like." Parker's simple, watercolor-and-colored pencil illustrations are similar to those in The Bag I'm Taking to Grandma's (1995), The Jacket I Wear in the Snow (1989), and The Dress I'll Wear to the Party (1992, all Greenwillow). The characters are real, down to the dog who gets the toast and the cat who gets the cereal. Everybody enjoys the finale when Dad, Mother, and the children go to Joe's Cafe for pancakes. A great selection, particularly for Mother's Day!?Betty Teague, Blythe Academy of Languages, Greenville, SCCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. From