Sun Bread

by Elisa Kleven

Overview

Winter's gray chill has set in and everyone misses the sun-especially the baker.  So she decides to bring some warmth to the town by making sun bread.  And as the bread bakes, rising hot and delicious, everyone comes out to share in its goodness.  Everyone, including the sun itself.  With a lilting, rhyming text, colorful illustrations, and a recipe for baking your own sun bread, this tasty treat from the illustrator of the best-selling Abuela is just right for all ages to enjoy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142400739
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/30/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	373,431
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.11(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Elisa Kleven writes and illustrates picture books because she's never outgrown a deep childhood urge to enter a magical world. To date, she has written and illustrated 13 books and illustrated 15 others, including her School Library Journal Best Book, Puddle Pail, which also features the crocodile brothers, Ernst and Sol; her New York Times Best Illustrated Book, Sun Bread; The Lion and the Little Red Bird; and The Paper Princess. Elisa and her family and live in Albany, California.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The richly detailed illustrations, with the promise of an accompanying activity, hold alchemy of their own." -Kirkus Review

Editorial Reviews

"The richly detailed illustrations, with the promise of an accompanying activity, hold alchemy of their own." -Kirkus Review

From the Publisher

According to PW, "Sun, fun, and dough are on the rise in this tasty picture book about a baker who helps brighten up her snowbound town." Ages 2-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-K-A wintry village inhabited by a variety of unlikely creatures is the setting for this rhyming tale about how the efforts of a humble baker restore the sun to a chilled world. Bellicose bears, argumentative monkeys, a lachrymose pig, and a depressed giraffe are among the distressed animals pictured. It's not until the town's baker, an innovative little dog, bakes a smiling bread in the shape of the sun that the residents have reason to rejoice and hope. As they share in the feast, their bodies as well as their spirits are so lightened that they rise into the sky. There they make such a joyful noise that the long-slumbering sun is awakened. The baker somehow intuits that it wants some of his special loaf and the happy villagers share it with the celestial body. Sunlight is restored to the Earth and returns the next day for the little baker's promised sun bread and buns. A recipe is included. This sunny tale is marred by an uneven rhyme scheme and awkward phrasing. The story also suffers from a certain incongruity and lack of logic as well. Why are tropical animals depicted in such an alien environment? Why does the sun want to eat sun bread? Kleven's characteristically charming folk-art-inspired collages far outshine the text in this instance.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

The winter winds are whipping through the village, leaving everyone cold and disheartened—and the baker decides to change all that with a loaf of bread. The washed-out colors of winter surround the frozen village, where the villagers yearn for the warmth of the sun. The baker takes some flour, yeast, sugar, and eggs and kneads it into a rich loaf of bread shaped like the sun. As it bakes, the loaf begins to grow, filling the whole village with its warmth. The residents—porcupines, pigs, giraffes, monkeys, and birds—all come out to see and sample this amazing yeasty creation. As their joy grows, the real sun wakes up to see what's what. The animals rejoice and find their gloom drifting away as they are warmed by its rays and the rich flavor of the bread. The poetic lines of this tale swirl and arc around the illustrations, giving the illusion that the wind is blowing them to and fro. The brightly colored drawings made from paint and collage complement this tale of winter turning to spring. On the back cover and jacket is a recipe for sun bread, which, "alas, won't make you fly. But, it is heavenly light and high." Though not an especially riveting story, the richly detailed illustrations, with the promise of an accompanying activity, hold alchemy of their own. (Picture book 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews