Bread and Jam for Frances

Bread and Jam for Frances
Written by Russell Hoban
Illustrated by Lillian Hoban
Ages 4-8

If you are trying to convince someone to try new foods then this is the perfect book for you! Frances is a young child badger who refuses to eat anything except bread and jam. She refuses the poached eggs she is given for breakfast and the veal cutlets she is served for dinner. And when her Mom packs her an egg salad sandwich for lunch, she trades another kid for his bread and jam. Her parents try to explain to Frances that trying new foods is a good thing, but Frances won't hear of it.
Finally, her parents stop offering her their food and serve her only bread and jam. She has it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, day after day. At first she feels lucky to have all the bread and jam she could want. After a while, though, her love for bread and jam starts to fade and she starts to wish she was being given other options. The lunch that Albert brings to school one day makes Frances jealous because he has a few tasty options (a sandwich, an egg, pickles, grapes, a tangerine and milk) but Frances only has bread and jam. Finally she sings, "What I am, is tired of jam".
Frances' parents exchange the bread and jam for many other tasty foods that Frances loves.

Sidenote: As the book was originally written in the 60s, some of the foods may be outdated or unfamiliar to the children (i.e. lobster salad sandwich, veal cutlets, poached eggs).

Questions to discuss with your reader:

1. Why did Frances stop eating bread and jam when she loves it so much?
2. What food would you want to eat all the time?
   
3. What foods do you hate eating?
   
4. If you were Frances' parents, would you let her eat bread and jam all the time? Why/why not?

Programming ideas:
CRAFT IDEA - Print off copies of a plate setting with an empty plate (see http://www.cutco.com/images/promotion/thanksgiving/ps.jpg) on both sides of the page. On one side, have the children draw foods that they love and on the other side, have them draw foods they dislike.

GAME IDEA - Shopping for food.
Give every player a $20 Monopoly bill. Hand them a list of foods (with pictures) that they have to buy in order to make spaghetti and meatballs with a salad. Print out grocery items on a paper, cut them out and scatter them around the programming room (for examples, see the list at the bottom). Write different prices on the same print-out so that they have to choose which type of spaghetti they will buy. Give them 10 minutes (in the first round) to run around and find the foods on the shopping list. Encourage the parents to help them with the adding of the cost of the foods (because they only have $20). Give them a few rounds to play. The winner of the game will get all the ingredients without spending more than $20.
For game printouts, see:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/2443293913_7f86787f8e.jpg?v=0
http://z.about.com/d/kidscooking/1/0/w/V/-/-/sweet-sour-meatballs-big.jpg
http://www.edenfoods.com/store/images/products/zoom/104030.jpg
http://ayeshahaq.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/lettuce3.jpg
http://www.valleygroves.com/images/Tomatoes.jpg
http://ayeshahaq.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cucumber0511.jpg

Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock

Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock
Retold by Eric A. Kimmel
Illustrated by Janet Stevens

Ages 5-9

You are in for a treat with this story. Eric Kimmel has taken a story that originated in West Africa and brought it to audiences in a funny, thoughtful and energetic way. The story begins when Anansi, a spider, comes upon a moss-covered rock in the forest. He has never seen anything like it before. When he says, "Isn't this a strange moss-covered rock!" he immediately faints and wakes up an hour later. When Anansi learns that this rock has the power to cause fainting, Anansi devises a deceitful plan to use it on the other animals so that Anansi can steal their food supplies. He lures each of the animals into the forest, guides them to the rock, waits for them to say, "Isn't this a strange moss-covered rock!" and then runs back to their food supplies and steals it all. See, Anansi is too lazy to collect the food himself, so he comes up with a plan to use half the effort to generate double the reward. It isn't until the shy, quiet Little Bush Deer, comes up with a plan to play the same trick on Anansi does he get taught a lesson and all the animals reclaim their food.

This story has the opportunity to use different voices for each of the many characters.

A quick note for anyone looking for this book in your local, public library: you are likely to find it with fairy tales in the non-fiction section than with the other picture books (please consult your librarian for assistance).

Questions to discuss with the readers:
-What are some of the animals that Anansi plays a trick on? What area of the world might Anansi and these animals live in?
-What should they do with that magic moss-covered rock? Hide it? Move it to another forest?
-What do you do when someone steals your food or something that belongs to you?

Programming ideas:
IDEA #1: Game idea -- Place some sheets of coloured construction paper in a circle on the ground (with one sheet of white paper mixed in with the colours). Hand out one card to each child; these cards have different pictures of fruit or animals that were discussed in the book though some cards have a picture of a moss-coloured rock. Have the children walk on the pieces of paper to some music. When the music stops, the child on the piece of white paper has to explain what the picture is on their card. It may be a giraffe or a coconut. If it's a picture of the moss-covered rock, then the children should exclaim, "Isn't this a strange moss-covered rock!" and all the children fall down.

IDEA#2: Craft idea -- Make a replica of the animal's house in the forest out of popsicle sticks.