Tuesday 13 February 2018

"Mr Wolf's Pancakes" by Jan Fearnley (Egmont Publishing)

It's absolutely lovely to see this one reprinted again, so as it's Pancake Day and we'll all be flipping, sizzling, mixing and...in our case, picking all the bits off the floor and ceiling let's dive into Jan Fearnley's classic "Mr Wolf's Pancakes"...
Mr Wolf - unlike most story wolves - is a kindly soul who lives with other famous story characters in a sleepy little hamlet.

Mr Wolf wakes up one day and REALLY fancies a lovely fresh stack of pancakes. The only problem is that Mr Wolf isn't exactly blessed in the brains department.

He needs a stack of help - but his neighbours are absolutely horrible!

Wee Willie Winkie? Nasty and next to useless. The Three Little Pigs? Well OK they might have a good reason not to like Mr Wolf - and the same goes for Little Red Riding Hood but despite his polite pleas, no one wants to help him.

Patiently, taking his time, Mr Wolf makes his list, checks it twice, counts his money (not easy when you're a wolf) and struggles home with his produce as no one will lend him a basket.

It takes a little more effort before Mr Wolf has cooked up an amazing golden pile of pancakes, which his neighbours can all smell. But will kindly Mr Wolf want to share with such a nasty bunch, who wouldn't lift a finger to help him?

It's a lovely twist on the "Little Red Hen" fairy tale, but has an even cooler twist at the end (which we won't spoil for you if you haven't encountered this superb little book before). Hooray for Mr Wolf. Now, ours we love plain with sugar and lemon juice if you please..!

C's best bit: The glorious twist at the end (which she managed to guess, but still loved to bits).

Daddy's favourite bit: Lovely to see this one releasing just in time for today's pancake-based shenanigans. Made us hungry all the way through though, we could almost SMELL that stack of lovely pancakes ourselves.

"Mr Wolf's Pancakes" by Jan Fearnley is out now, published by Egmont (kindly supplied for review).