cover image Peanut Butter & Cupcake!

Peanut Butter & Cupcake!

Terry Border. Philomel, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-16773-7

Border takes ordinary household objects, gives them arms and legs made of wire, and takes brightly-lit, close-up photographs of the results. His first picture book stars a slice of bread slathered with peanut butter who’s new to the neighborhood and needs a friend. His blobby wire hands and feet are inherently funny, and his gestures are remarkably human. Peanut Butter wanders around with a soccer ball singing his signature invitational tune: “I’ll make you chuckle deep down in your belly/ And we’ll go together like Peanut Butter and...” He’s looking for jelly, of course, but he meets some other characters first. He recites his rhyme to a pink-iced confection shoveling in a sandbox, finishing, “And we’ll go together like Peanut Butter and... Cupcake!” “[D]on’t hit my castle with your ball or I’ll be mad!” she snaps. An egg on a unicycle, French fries, and even a jump-roping meatball will divert readers until Peanut Butter finds the friend he’s looking for. Despite the predictability of the storyline, Border’s witty food comedy will lure children who are hungry for clever visual entertainment. Ages 3–5. (July)