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ROUND IS A PANCAKE by Joan Sullivan Baranski

ROUND IS A PANCAKE

by Joan Sullivan Baranski & illustrated by Yu-Mei Ham

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46173-6
Publisher: Dutton

This first picture book from this team is a rhyming celebration of all things round, from tiny buttons to huge, fancifully decorated hot-air balloons. The setting is a festival day in an old-fashioned, mythically happy court with jolly jesters turning cartwheels, cheerful cooks baking cookies and a three-tiered round cake, and a smiling royal family wearing round crowns adorned with round jewels. The court celebration draws to a close with a round of fireworks in circular bursts and hot-air balloon rides against a royal blue sky (with a full moon, of course). Han's cheery illustrations in jewel-bright tones are full of tiny round details: polka-dot dresses, spotted puppies, wheels, hats, and balls. Although the concept of round objects may seem just a poetic text structure, identifying circular shapes from varying angles is actually an early math concept. Give this one a round of applause. (Picture book. 2-6)