blog tour :: the horribly hungry gingerbread boy

FTC Compliant Disclosure:  I was sent a copy of this book by Heyday Books to facilitate this blog tour review., however, all opinions expressed below are entirely my own.

Today I am honored to be participating in a blog tour promoting the newest book by Elisa Kleven: The Horribly Hungry Gingerbread Boy (and please read to the end of this post for a *give away*).

If you're a regular a reader of my blog, you may have seen me mention Elisa Kleven's books once or twice (or thrice).  I love Elisa's work for the peacefulness and hope her work exudes. I love the luminous colors of her artwork, and I love every tiny bird, mouse, turtle, frog, butterfly, ladybug, and ant inhabiting her engagingly detailed illustrations.

I treasure each of Elisa's books for different reasons and what I love most about this newest book is that it is so very funny and feisty.  Elisa's take on the story is utterly original with a Gingerbread Boy who is deeply offended that the child who has created him then tries to eat him.  My favorite lines of the book are:

"Hey you," cried Shirley.  "Stop! Come back!"

"No way!" he said.  "I'm not your snack.

I thought you'd be my friend, but no,

You bit my thumb -- what next, my toe?"

As you can see in the illustration above, all is eventually resolved between Shirley and her Gingerbread Boy, but along the way we are treated to a madcap tour of San Francisco with notes at the end of the book telling us about the Landmarks visited by our two protagonists.  And what's more, at the end of the book there is also a recipe for baking your own gingerbread people (who hopefully won't try to run away).

If you're not up for baking, here is another way to make gingerbread people which Elisa shared with me a few weeks ago.  This sweet craft is one which Elisa sometimes offers at bookstores and schools when she visits to talk about her work.

SUPPLIES
-- A large sheet of blank paper
-- A sheet of brown paper (or a brown paper bag)
-- A cookie cutter for tracing a template (optional)
-- Colorful bits of paper and/or fabric
-- Buttons or other interesting collage materials
-- A pencil plus markers or crayons

-- White glue for attaching buttons & fabric
-- A glue stick
-- A pair of scissors

STEP ONE :: Using a pencil, sketch the outline of a gingerbread person onto a sheet of brown paper or a brown paper bag and then use a pair of scissors (or have your child use scissors) to cut it out.  Alternatively, if you are uncertain about freehand sketching a gingerbread person, you could trace around a person-shaped cookie cutter.

For extra fun, you could cut out more than one gingerbread person and create a scene with them interacting on the page.

STEP TWO :: Use the glue stick to affix your paper gingerbread folk to a larger piece of plain paper.

STEP 3 :: Cut out clothing from collage materials (paper or fabric) and affix with glue (glue stick for paper or white glue for fabric).

STEP 4 :: Use more collage materials plus pens & crayons to create a sky, clouds, grass & flowers, buttons, faces for your gingerfolk, etc...

And now that we are done with our craft project, please let me tell you about the *give away*.  To participate, leave a comment below, and if you wish, please share your favorite kind of cookie or a favorite cookie-baking memory in your comment.  I will close the give away on Monday December 12 and choose a winner via random number generator.  Thank you to Heyday Books, publisher of The Horribly Hungry Gingerbread Boy, for kindly offering a copy of the book. (Note: due to high postage rates, this give away is limited to participants in the US only.)

If you enjoyed this blog post and are interested in reading more about Elisa & the The Horribly Hungry Gingerbread Boy, you can visit her website HERE. I also invite you to visit the other blogs participating in this blog tour (there is a book *give away* on each blog!)

12/6/16 :: Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)/Tara Lazar
12/7/16 :: We Bloom Here/Margaret Bloom
12/8/16 :: Wee Folk Studio/Salley Mavor
12/9/16 :: KidLit411/Sylvia Liu

The give-away has ended and comments are now closed.  Thank you for your interest!