Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
All for Pie, Pie for All
Illustrator: Valeri Gorbachev
Picture Book
For ages 4 to 6
Candlewick Press, 2006 ISBN: 0763623938
One day Grandma Cat makes an apple pie, which all the members of her family enjoy eating. Five pieces of the pie are eaten up, and there is one piece left. Full of pie, the Cat family goes outside to have a nap under the trees.
In the house, Grandma Mouse smells the last piece of pie sitting on the table. The mice eat five pieces of the pie until all that is left are six crumbs. With happy tummies full of pie, the mice go and have a nap on the sofa in their cozy little home.
While they are sleeping, Grandma Ant smells the six crumbs of pie sitting on the plate in the mice’s home. Quickly Grandma Ant, Big Sister Ant, Momma Ant, Poppa Ant and Little Brother Ant take a crumb each and they start to walk off home, which is when Baby Ant wakes up. She scrambles out of her pram and runs to get the last little crumb of pie for herself. Now that the pie is all gone, this surely must be the end of the story, right? No, not quite.
What makes this picture book unique is that the author makes us think the story is at an end, but then something else happens to give the tale a little something extra. With a clever and heartwarming ending, and likeable animal characters, this is a picture book that children and their families will enjoy. A piece of pie anyone?
