Marsupial Sue Presents "The Runaway Pancake"
PreSchool-Grade 3–Marsupial Sue and her friends are presenting their version of The Gingerbread Man. Sue has the role of Auntie May, who cooks a pancake in the oven. As soon as it is done, it jumps out of the pan and rolls away, singing as it goes. It meets a variety of animals until it is finally outsmarted by a fox. Because the story is set as a play, Davis has the challenge of depicting animals dressed as other creatures. Some of them are hard to decipher and could be confusing to children. Also confusing is the fact that as the play begins, the colored-pencil, acrylic, dye, and ink illustrations depict a stage with an audience, but as it progresses, the setting changes to the countryside. The text is printed on top of the bright, full-page cartoon art, an effect that is busy but readable. The book reads like a transcript of a storyteller's performance and follows closely Lithgow's own words on the accompanying CD. His performance is animated and highly entertaining. Almost as delightful are the background comments by the young live audience. Despite the shortcomings of the book, the CD is worth the purchase price. Note, however, that Marsupial Sue is never mentioned by name; she is simply Auntie May, which may disappoint readers expecting her to have a bigger role in the book.–Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.