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THE TOAST OF THE TOWN

Name: THE TOAST OF THE TOWN
Author: Jory John
ISBN: 9780063589834

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 10, 2026

Umpteen books in, this punning series is still full of beans.

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The latest title in this indefatigable food-centered series finds a piece of toast recounting a life-changing event.

Before earning the nickname the Toast of the Town, this book’s narrator is just one of many slices of bread at a diner, where life is dispiriting: “I may have been wheat bread, but I felt like sourdough.” The protagonist doesn’t have much going on—“I mostly just loafed around”—until the day our hero accidentally falls into a toaster: “I felt…different. I’d dropped into the appliance as ordinary bread…but when I popped out, I had become…toast.” This development leads to a radical change in outlook, and the toast has since embarked on a crusade of helpfulness (“I try to pop up wherever help is needed. That’s just how I roll”). The narrator’s community-minded spiel does run long, but the verbal and visual gags arrive with slapstick-comedy frequency. If there exists a pun about bread or toast, John has used it here. Working digitally, Oswald takes all this silliness seriously, approaching scenes revolving around a range of common pantry and refrigerator items with uncommon care. In a coy touch, the narrator’s flashback to the diner days is largely rendered in gray tones, calling to mind scenes from an old movie…if old movies starred foodstuffs with stick limbs and googly eyes.

Umpteen books in, this punning series is still full of beans. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2026

ISBN: 9780063589834

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HUMBLE PIE
by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BIG CHEESE PRESENTS
by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYTHING'S WRONG!
by Jory John ; illustrated by Erin Kraan

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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THE PUMPKIN THIEF

From the Leaf Thief series

by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2026

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.

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Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.

Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)