The Apple Pie That Papa Baked

This picture book is actually an "add on" style poem that tells the story of what went into the making of the apple pie that the girl in the story bakes. It begins with the pie, working backwards to the apples, the tree they grew on, the roots and soil, the sun, etc. This allows for repetition and

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young children can anticipate what will come next as they encounter familiar lines over and over. The illustrations are bold and graphic in a color scheme of black, brown, and red. This is an excellent Read-Aloud selection for the fall months, and will be greatly enjoyed by children ages 4-6.

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I love the art in the book. With only black, beige, brown and a touch of red in every illustration, the artist proves that through line and shape an entire world can be created. I also appreciate how it makes the reader think about where and how apples came to be. I find it refreshing that papa

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makes the pie for his daughter rather than a mother.

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Using the classic English nursery rhyme and cumulative tale, "This Is the House That Jack Built," as a template, Lauren Thompson spins an engaging tale of a sweet apple pie that a father baked for his daughter. Tracing back from the pie to the apples, the apples to the tree, the tree to the roots,

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the roots to the rain, and so on, the narrative here expands out to the entire world, before focusing in again on the apple pie, and the loving bond between father and daughter...

The Apple Pie That Papa Baked is a lovely little book, pairing a beautifully-worded text from Thompson, who manages to take a fairly formulaic structure and insert some emotion into it, with gorgeous artwork from illustrator Jonathan Bean. Influenced by such classic picture-book artists as Virginia Lee Burton and Wanda Gág, Bean created these striking vintage-style illustrations using three sets of drawings, done on vellum and then combined, recreating an older printing process not commonly used today. The result is a beautifully-illustrated book, one that looks like a classic, but also has a contemporary feeling. I really loved the artwork here, and was interested to see that this was Bean's first picture-book, given my enjoyment of his subsequent books - Building Our House, This Is My Home, This Is My School - done in a different style. I also really appreciated that this was a father-daughter story, as this pairing doesn't seem to be as common as it should be, in picture-book land. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for sweet autumnal stories and/or tales featuring fathers and daughters.

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