Pie for Chuck

December 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-Big Chuck, a large and furry woodchuck, loves pie, and so do Raccoon, Rabbit, little Chip (a chipmunk), and the mice. Separately, not one of them can reach the remote, yet enticing, pie on the window ledge. With a little teamwork, however, the three mice climb atop the shoulders of Big Chuck, and a delectable reward is happily in sight as all the friends enjoy an upside-down blueberry pie lying in wait for them on the floor below. Schories's spare, repetitive text is printed in large, accessible letters that are perfect for beginning readers and equally appealing for group read-alouds. She captures each creature's yearning expression for the unattainable treat just out of their reach, including beady eyes, upturned faces, and pouty frowns. Readers and listeners should not overlook the back page of the text, which features a small child pointing to the overturned pie plate and all the animals scampering away and hiding from the scene of the "crime." VERDICT A first-rate book that is as ideal for a picture book audience as for a one-on-one solitary read.-Etta Anton, Yeshiva of Central Queens, NY

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July 15, 2015
A pie cooling on a windowsill and passing miscreants of all stripes make for an inexorable combustion. This short, cheerful tale of cooperation from Schories features engaging artwork and animal protagonists, and it operates on a very approachable level for beginning readers: "Big Chuck loves pie. // Big Chuck can see the pie. // Big Chuck can smell the pie." (That covers six pages.) The letters are big and welcoming, and the norm is three to four words per sentence, with the occasional stretch to a James Joyce-an seven. It is not just Big Chuck (a very large woodchuck, as his name suggests) the pie has attracted, but an assortment of rural chums. Trouble is, none can reach the pie by itself. Even working in concert, standing on one another's shoulders, "Can the mice get the pie? No, they cannot!" In a spontaneous act of interspecies cooperation, Big Chuck hoists the mice on his head, and the pie comes tumbling down. "Pie for everyone!"-though the pie makers may not agree. (It's blueberry, by the way, and Schories has drawn its warm, blue gooiness just right; it's irresistible, even lying in the dirt.) The words have pure drive to them, and the repetition calls forth an incantatory urge to speak the words out loud. Fine for a read-alone but like dynamite for a read-aloud. (Picture book. 4-8)

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