WOODPECKER WANTS A WAFFLE

Will this woodpecker wishing for waffles win one?

“One morning, Benny awoke to the best tummy-rumbling smell.” He follows his nose to the grand opening of Moe’s, home, so the sign says, of the hot waffle breakfast. Benny doesn’t exactly know what a waffle is, but when he sees one, he knows he wants one. Every attempt to get one ends in a boot or a broom from the beehived, bespectacled white waitress. When his animal friends catch him thinking about waffles and plotting to get one, they laugh and tell him, “Woodpeckers don’t eat waffles!”—but only pushy Bunny has a reason. (Kind of: “Because I SAID so.”) So Benny details his spectacular plan to get a waffle (involving cannon and juggling and fireworks and musical numbers). His description of his plan draws an animal audience around the diner the next morning…but will it net Benny a waffle? Breen’s adorable and determined woodpecker knows what he wants as surely as Willems’ Pigeon does, but Benny may be a bit smarter. His attempts (and final success) will have preschoolers giggling and begging for a second helping. Ink, watercolors, colored pencils, and “artistic genius” were used to make the cartoon illustrations that add the perfect subtle and slapstick humor to Benny’s quest.

Serves up fun (and likely a waffle craving)—a good bet for breakfast reading.