Monday, March 28, 2016

Dessert First by Hallie Durand illustrated by Christine Davenier





Dessert First is a terrific little story for fans of Clementine
Judy Moody, Daisy Dawson, Violet Mackerel, Junie B Jones and Gooney Bird Greene.


Here is Dessert's signature :




"You might want to know about the cherry.  I call it flair, It could be on top of a banana sundae, a cornflake-cream-cheese cookie, a hot fudge sundae, or even a freshly baked lemon square ... Also it shows my personal style."

Dessert (Donahue Penelope Schneider) is the daughter of restaurant owners.  The restaurant is called Fondue Paris.  The whole family love food and dinner each night at home and in the family restaurant is such a treat.  Dessert naturally loves to eat dessert and so she comes up with a plan to make her parents agree the family can eat dessert first at their evening meal.

Mummy makes a box of Double-Decker brownies.  The box sits in the refrigerator.  Dessert tries to resist temptation but - well you can guess what happens.  You won't guess, however, why mummy made these treats and just how Dessert makes amends.  Meanwhile at school every child has to make a pledge to give up something they love for two weeks as a fund raiser for a new school tree house.  How wonderful to raise money for something fun and not something utilitarian.

One delightful aspect of this book is the wonderful third grade teacher.  Her name is Mrs Normana Howdy Doody.  Each day children march around the classroom where they are encouraged to be 'happy learners'

"Wednesdays are one of my favourite days of the week, because you never know what you might learn by Friday."

There are three books in this series.  I think this first book would make a good family read-a-loud.  You might like to read this review which includes a recipe for those brownies.




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