James Bear's Pie (1992) by Jim Latimer is cuisine for the
cook and the chemist. Bear is tired of eating grass. His friend Skunk suggests
he make a pie. Crow has an oven; however, Crow isn't available to supervise Bear's cooking. When Skunk leaves to find ingredients, Bear is left alone to
make his hilarious mistake. Betsy Franco-Feeney illustrates Bear as earnest and
perplexed by a recipe, which may mirror children's experiences. Bear doesn't
recognize his mistake throughout the entire story. He's elated with the results
of his baking and will never go back to meals of alfalfa. Even though Skunk
reveals the blunder, she doesn't completely explain it, so children will need
to learn about yeast. The drama isn't frightening. The setting is an old stone
bakery with shelves of ingredients, many of which are spilling. Messiness is
another quality readers may relate to. Bear's
satisfaction with his pie is palpable. I was dismayed by the poor review of
this book on Goodreads. I found it delicious.
Imperfectly Primary has How to Bake a Pie, Sequence Primary Writing. Audrey Baldwin has No Bake Pumpkin Pie Recipe. Not Your Speech Teacher has Baking a Pie Verb Exemplars.
