Sugar and Snails

by Sarah Tsiang, Sonja Wimmer (Illustrator)

Overview

A novel twist to a classic rhyme.

Who says that little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice?” Or that boys are made of “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails?” What if girls were made of “boats and snails and dinosaur tails?” And little boys of “flowers and swings and bumblebee wings?”

When the traditional rhyme just doesn’t seem to fit the boy and girl visiting their grandpa, he comes up with a list of unusual alternatives. Soon the children are coming up with their own versions that challenge the old stereotypes with a whimsical list of ingredients. To add to the new quirky version are lively illustrations that beautifully capture the children’s imaginative flights of fancy. Young readers will delight in the small details of Sonja Wimmer’s vibrant art, and be inspired to think of their own silly examples of what ingredients they might be made of themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773210063
Publisher:	Annick Press, Limited
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Sarah Tsiang is an award-winning poet as well as a children's book author. Her books with Annick Press include A Flock of Shoes, Dogs Don't Eat Jam and Other Things Big Kids Know, Warriors and Wailers: 100 Anicent Chinese Jobs You Might Have Relished or Reviled, and The Stone Hatchlings. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Sonja Wimmer is an award-winning German illustrator and storyteller from Munich.

Editorial Reviews

01/08/2018
A boy, a girl, and an elderly man—presumably their grandfather—deconstruct the saying that boys are made of snails and puppy dog tails and girls from sugar and spice. Tsiang (The Stone Hatchlings) opens with the three sitting around the breakfast table, but they’re quickly transported into a freewheeling world of imagination as they debate the rhyme. “I don’t wear dresses!” insists the girl after the man suggests that girls might instead be made of “Dresses and sweets and everything neat.” (Oddly, she’s wearing a dress when she makes this claim.) Soon, their ideas are flying back and forth, letting Wimmer (A Surprise for Mrs. Tortoise) run wild with the possibilities in her surreal mixed-media caricatures. “Maybe it was that boys are made of lightning and newts... and rubber rain boots,” writes Tsiang as the boy, dressed like a superhero, launches skyward on a slice of toast. Whimsical transformations come fast and furious, and, although the text is framed in binary boy-girl terms, readers will sense that stereotypes and norms are dissolving with each page turn. Ages 4–7. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-02-03
A whimsical reimagination of the familiar nursery rhyme that celebrates creativity and exploration instead of gender stereotypes.When a white-haired grandfather shares the well-known "sugar and spice" poem about what little girls and boys are made of, his grandchildren react to the gender stereotypes. "I don't wear dresses," says the older sister. "And I don't like frogs," grumps the brother. The grandfather then unravels the saying by exploring new ingredients for the children. "Okay, so boys are made of cookies and spice…and jump-roping mice?" The creative couplets blossom into fantastic images, with Wimmer's illustrations leaping off the page, coaxing readers closer to inhale the details. The characters have Asian features, but little else is overtly Asian. The children imagine becoming whales and bumblebees and lemon desserts, while kitchen items serve as visual anchors. Drawn with traditional gender cues (the older sister has long hair and graceful limbs, while the tousled younger brother exudes high energy and mischievousness), this remake is still refreshingly current, allowing both children to try out different flights of whimsy as the wise grandfather and the pointy-snouted dog stand as witnesses. The last illustration is the literal unraveling of the sampler of the traditional poem that opened the book. A celebration of imagination and the limitlessness of life. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews