  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 09/01/2011 K-Gr 2—Lucy decides that it's time she learned how to read and write. There is something she wants to do and needs those skills to do it, but she's not telling anyone what that is. Lucy draws pictures, and Mom and Dad supply the printed words, but Peanut the dog usually eats the paper. When Lucy and her mother plant a vegetable garden, they make signs for each row, but the pup digs everything up and eats the signs. The garden has to be replanted. While it is growing, Lucy keeps working on her reading and writing. When the vegetables are harvested, she makes a cake that she puts in her pet's bowl. She then makes a birthday card for him, showing everyone that she can now read and write by herself. The illustrations are done in acrylic, gouache, and colored and pastel pencils. The cartoon characters have big heads, skinny necks, and small arms and legs. The joke of the dog eating all the paper goes on a bit too long and the big event that readers have been promised doesn't quite satisfy.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 09/15/2011 The joy of learning to read and write is the exciting story in this lively picture book with large, sweet, colorful, cartoon-style illustrations that show preschooler Lucy having fun with her parents and her mischievous dog, Peanut. She starts off by making signs, “Mom” and “Dad,” with words and pictures on sticky notes, but Peanut chews them. As the family works together in the garden, she makes signs for the vegetables they plant—“beans,” “peas,” “carrots,” and “corn”—but Peanut digs in the muddy garden and mixes up all the seeds. Her new sign, “mixed vegetables,” makes them all laugh and sing. When Peanut chews her sign, “Eat,” she laughs that Peanut is also learning to read. The wry show-and-tell story builds up to the climax, when Lucy makes Peanut his own birthday card—she knows to put it high on a shelf, and he eats his cake instead. Young children will enjoy returning to this warm, humorous offering again and again. - Copyright 2011 Booklist. Loading...
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