From Publishers Weekly
Sun, fun and dough are on the rise in this tasty picture book about a baker who helps brighten up her snowbound town. Joy and color have all but disappeared in the midst of a dreary, relentless winter: "The wind it whooshed, the snow it whirled/ / Bare trees shook like chilly bones./ Children grumbled in their homes." But the proprietor of Fiesta Bakery believes she has just the recipe to set things right. With her "loving touch," she fashions a sun-shaped loaf of bread that magically rises and shines, filling the townspeople's stomachs and spirits. The animal citizens' celebration stirs the real sun from its sleep, creating a ripple effect that spreads sunshine and happiness throughout the land. Kleven (Abuela) handles what could have been a sappy theme with a light touch. Her buoyant rhyming text brims with shimmering imagery ("It glittered on the blue-green seas,/ Wove golden ribbons through the trees") and has a consistent, fun-to-read-aloud rhythm. A menagerie of anthropomorphic animals cavorts and nibbles on sun bread in cheerful compositions of paint and collage. A good time (and good food) is had by all, and a recipe for sun bread on the book's jacket invites readers to join the fun. Ages 2-6.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
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, Inc.
