Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Age Appropriateness: Primary
Review/Critique:
Tyler dreamt about pancakes, and once he woke up he grabbed his dog, Tofu, and off they went to Mr. Jones' market. Mr. Jones helped Tyler grab all of the ingredients he needed for his pancakes, and he also helped explain where the ingredients came from. Once Tyler got back home, he mixed the batter and then his dad helped him make the best blueberry pancake breakfast possible!

This is good modern fantasy because it is realistic for Tyler to make pancakes with the help of his parents, but it is unrealistic in that a child this young would not know how to get ingredients all by himself. This book is also good because the world in which Tyler is in is realistic throughout the whole story. ( )

Tyler Makes Pancakes

by: Tyler Florence

Illustrated by: Craig Frazier

5 Star Rating


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062047526
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 4/24/2012
Pages: 40
Sales rank: 111,989
Age range: 4 – 7 Years
Product dimensions: 10.24 (w) x 9.86 (h) x 0.42 (d)

I’ve recently discovered that I have a very hard time finding anything wrong with a picture book. I sat down with my niece, who is a squirmy almost 2-year-old to read through Tyler Makes Pancakes. With some help from her, we flipped through pages, pointed out cute drawings, and went through the entire book in about fifteen minutes. This was the perfect amount of time because she wouldn’t have stayed relatively still for much more than that. This have everything a child needs.
1. It is a simple storyline that is easy to follow. Tyler wakes up from a dream wanting pancakes. He goes out to the market with his dog to purchase the ingredients, goes through the store with the owner to get all of them learning a little as he goes, and then goes home to make the pancakes.
2. The illustrations are simple and funny to look at.
3. The pace goes quickly with no more than about five sentences on each page. This is a must since I’ve noticed that some children’s books have too many words on a page and when the child wants the page turned, it goes whether you have finished reading the lines or not. If there are fewer words on each page, I tend to get through the story without making things up.

At the end of the story, the book comes with a recipe for the pancakes that Tyler makes. This may be fun for someone who wants to whip up a batch with the help of their child after reading it. I would caution that Tyler is the one that does everything, including the stove work, so you may want to explain that Tyler may have been allowed to touch the stove, but your child is not. Also, there is a cute section about fun facts. I did not get through that with my niece, but the adults enjoyed that part as we laughed about certain unknown aspects of pancake making. All together, it’s hard to find flaws with such a cute book. The only thing that may be an issue with a child that is getting a little older is that Tyler leaves the home to go to the market while his parents are sleeping, gets all of the items with no mention of money, and does all of the cooking himself. It’s safe to say that you don’t want your child following that example. ( )

Chef Tyler Florence writes a book about making pancakes! Receipe in the back of the book for everyone to try and make pancakes.