This book is classified as a fantasy book because of the imaginary world the charters are placed in. Toby the main charter and her Ma and Pa are on a journey! Toby is bounced out of the wagon and is almost eaten by a wolf, bear, cougar, and other scary animals. Toby is able to outsmart them all! When she finally is with her family again she asked her Ma if they can have pancakes for breakfast. Her moms says yes and she eats 169 pancakes. This book is a fun and silly book. ( )

My daughter loves pancakes so I though based on the title it would be a good fit. Pancakes are a pretty irrelevant after thought of the story. Not even sure why the story was titled Pancakes for Supper. The story was moderately entertaining but there are better ones of this type out there. ( )

I liked this book because of the plot and its different types of writing. Pancakes for Supper is based on The Story of Little Black Sambo, which was written in 1899. This tale tells a story about a young girl named Toby, who gets separated from her family in the middle of the woods during the winter. Throughout her journey to reconnect with her parents, Toby meets many different animals that wish to eat her. Even though the whole story does not consist of rhyming words, each animal talks to Toby in a few poetic phrases. For instance, when Toby noticed a skunk it said to her, “Come to play? Go away! Plan to stay? Go away. Go away! Or I’ll SP-SP-SPRAY!” Toby convinced each animal not to eat her, by offering them a piece of her clothing, such as a hat or her gloves. After the animal received the clothing, they wandered off saying, “Now I’m the grandest beast, West or East.” I liked how the text sometimes consisted of poetry and at other times did not; this made the story more engaging and fun to read. Finally when Toby was almost out of clothing to give away, the animals ended up coming together and argued over who was the grandest beast in the forest. The animals fought so much that they became distracted and their clothing garments fell off, which Toby was able to retrieve. Toby ended up reuniting with her parents, and told them all about her many encounters with the animals. I was glad that Toby was able to find her parents again, but I thought that it was very silly that they decided to eat pancakes for dinner.
I feel that the main idea of this tale is too never give up, and to be brave. Toby was scared of the animals that she met, but rather than try to run away, she chose to be brave and think about her situation. This tale is written in third person and sounds like it is being “told” rather than read. Even though, the plot is simple and direct, I still feel like the ending was very random and did not fit in with the story. ( )

Toby and her family are taking a trip to Whistler Creek when they hit a bump and Toby goes flying out of the wagon and lands in the middle of the forest where she is met by many different animals that want to eat her. To keep herself safe, she gives them her clothes to make sure that they are the "grandest in the west and east". After she had given her clothes to five different animals, the animals saw each other wearing Toby's clothes and they fought about who was the grandest. During the animal's fight, they started to melt into maple syrup. After the animals melted, Toby's family found her and took her back home. Before they left, they decided to make pancakes for supper, and use the maple syrup from the animals. I would probably not read this book in my classroom, there is a weird plot twist that doesn't really have any relevance in a classroom setting. If I had to use it, I would probably use it to show an example of an extreme climax/plot twist. Genre: modern fantasy, because the things that happen in this book would never happen in any real life situation. ( )

An amusing retelling of Little Black Sambo. A bit wordy. Fun to pair with Babaji or Sam and the Tigers (both also retellings) , and other "please-don't-eat-me tricksters/: Babaji, Sam, Borreguita, 3Billy Goats Gruff, Love and Roast Chicken, Isabel and the Hungry Coyote, etc. ( )