Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?
A hand dives into a cookie jar to pull out a treat. But how many hands were needed to put the cookie there in the first place? With a text as simple as the pictures are stylized, this is a charming look at the process. After readers see hands—belonging to a little African American girl and her mom—mix the dough, the text and art move somewhere completely different, showing a worker making a cookie sheet and another sewing oven mitts. Then, on a farm, “hands that feed and milk the cow” become hands that churn the butter and guide the plow. All this is portrayed in a sturdy folk-art style that easily mixes birds and flowers with trains and packing cartons. Some children may be confused by the modernity of some scenes followed by others that show farm life from other eras and other places (for instance, a woman grinding her wheat into flour). But then everyone—bakers, farmers, workers—meet on a delightful final spread that seems to say there’s no need for rhyme or reason, just the pure pleasure of enjoying company—and cookies! Preschool-Grade 1. --Ilene Cooper