The Great Pancake Escape By Paul Many. Illustrations by Scott Goto Walker, NY, 2002 ISBN 0-8027-8795-9      "You will believe that pancakes can fly!"   Teachers' Guide The Great Pancake Escape By Paul Many. Illustrations by Scott Goto Walker, NY, 2002 ISBN 0-8027-8795-9 Grades K-3 Using This Guide This guide has been developed to help you use The Great Pancake Escape effectively in the classroom. Please email me at Paul.Many@utoledo.edu with suggestions for this guide or to let me know of classroom activities you may have used. Send pictures and your students' reactions and I'll be sure to post them here and credit you. Summary Told in rhymed verse, The Great Pancake Escape is the story of three children who chase after the pancakes that their magician father has mistakenly brought to life. The pancakes try to hide by taking the form of tires, roller-skate wheels, Frisbees and miscellaneous other objects. The kids return home empty-handed, and realize that the book their father used was a magic book not a cookbook. Using one of the book's spells, they call the pancakes back. The pancakes change all the way back to batter, however, and the kids refuse the father's offer to cook more pancakes, opting instead for frozen waffles. Awards and Reviews Publisher's Weekly lauds The Great Pancake Escape for its "rhythmic, playful verse." School Library Journal says the book is "An attractive addition to the canon of lively food tales." See the reviews link on this site for a comprehensive list. Background Students may find it interesting to know that the author has made pancakes from the time he was ten years old. As a young boy, he was known in his family for making strange pancakes such as chocolate or raisin. He was all grown, though, when on one Sunday morning , after making a batch of his blueberry pancakes , the idea for this book poured into his head, got all hot and bubbly, flipped and took off running. It took many years and many revisions to get it to the stage where everyone can now read it. Overall Themes and Ideas The Great Pancake Escape is one of a group of children's picture books with a pancake theme such as Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes! or Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond's If You Give a Pig a Pancake. It shares with these books a lighthearted approach to this fun, familiar kid-friendly food. You may wish to present it to your students along with these books. See the list of children's picture books with a pancake theme on this site. Although the book is light and humorous, it touches on such important issues as: Persistence in pursuing goals: the children persist in trying to find the pancakes even though the search at first appears hopeless to them. They quit only when their goal is reached and the pancakes are returned, albeit to their basic form. Sibling relations/Working together: The siblings approach the search as a group, watching out for one another, holding hands while crossing the street, comforting each other when they are sad. Problem solving: They are resourceful in following the pancakes through all of the changes the pancakes make. Perception: They use their powers of perception to look beyond the way things initially appear to discover the pancakes. Recognition of circles: For the youngest readers the book may be a reinforcement of a class on the basic shape of the circle and all the different things that can be in circular form. The power of words and reading: The pancakes become alive and escape through a mistake in reading; they are returned through the use of a book and reading things correctly. Child-parent relations in a one-parent family. The children are depicted as having a comfortable, sharing relationship in what appears to be a single-parent household. They help their father find his glasses and all participate in correcting the error. Activities For other more play-related activities, see the fun and games page on this site. Sing it: You can sing the verses of The Great Pancake Escape to the tune of O Susanna! The chorus is printed on the last page of the book. Either sing two verses and have the students sing the chorus, or read two verses and have the students sing the chorus. Read it: Guided reading or Reading aloud: Kindergarten and up. Self-selected readers or Reading alone: 3rd grade and up. Word definitions: The following are words in the book that you may wish to review with younger readers. Based on their context and/or the accompanying illustrations, see if you can get students to volunteer meanings of these words as you encounter them. acrobats, appear, avalanche, batter, belched, bellowed, chomping, cyclists, fleeting, flopped, flub, frisky, goof, grub, high gear, hightailed, highfalutin, hue, juggled, manhole, meadow, pealed, pooped, rash, signal, skittered, somersaults, specs, squirmed, squishy, stumbled, tumbled, wriggled. Before you Read the Story: Ask your students if they've ever seen a magic show. Ask them what kinds of things a magician does. Can they describe any tricks a magician does? Ask if they've ever helped someone make pancakes.. How is it done? What ingredients are used, how are they put together. What happens next? Reading the Story to Your Students: As you read the book out loud to your students, you may wish to stop from time to time and discuss the story with them. Here are some questions you may wish to use. Feel free to use only those appropriate to the age, experience and reading ability of your students. Cover: What are the things that are flying away from the children? Why do you think the pancakes are trying to escape? Have you ever had your breakfast try to run away from you? What do you think has caused the pancakes to act like this? What do you think the children will do? First spread: [Magician juggling ingredients] Why do you think the older boy is yawning but the younger boy is not? What does the girl think about what the father is doing? What are the things flying in the air? What is a "goof"? [a mistake] Have you ever made one? What is the mistake made by the father? Second spread: [Fire and explosion] What do you think happened here? Why did this happen? What is "batter"? Are there other foods cooked from batter? [cookies, cake] Third spread: [Kids catch pancakes] Why are the children telling their father "Watch out, Pop!"? Why are the pancakes flopping around like fish? Fourth spread: [Kids chase pancakes down back walk of house] What are the pancakes doing? Where are they going? What are the other things in the yard? [Magician's equipment] Are the pancakes staying on the sidewalk or going in the street? Do you think the children should run out in the street if the pancakes went out there? Fifth spread: [Pancakes roll around cats and through letter-carrier's legs] What is happening to make the cat jump in the air? What is an acrobat? [Someone who does tricks--like handstands--with their body.] The pancakes "disappeared." Where do you think they went? Sixth spread: [Kids crying] Why are the children crying? Do you think they will find the pancakes? Can you see any of the pancakes? Seventh spread: [Street scene: bus and taxicab] Can you find any of the pancakes? What do you think the pancakes are trying to do? The pancakes are hiding in things that all have the same shape. What shape is that? [A square, a triangle, a circle?] Is it safe for the children to be crossing this busy street? How do you know? [Green light] Are they following other street safety rules? [In crosswalk, holding hands.] Eighth spread: [In park] Can you find any of the pancakes in this picture? What does "highfalutin" mean? [fancy, snobby, thinks they're better than everyone else] Ninth spread: [Children running toward tree] What does it mean when someone says there's "something fishy" happening? [Something you think is not right, such as a man eating a steering wheel.] What are the people doing who are in front of the tree? [Tai chi: a kind of exercise consisting of slow, regular movements.] Tenth spread: [Pancakes flying, giant frog] What are the pancakes doing now? Remember what "batter" is? Why are they "batter-flies"? Why is frog so big? [Things that are closer to you seem bigger. Hold your finger up in front of your eye so it is next to me. Is your finger really bigger than me? But it looks bigger.] Eleventh spread: [Figures march by with large pancake umbrellas] Where are the pancakes now? What is "hue"? [color] What do you think the rain drops are made of? Twelfth spread: [Kids look at book] Where are the children now? Why didn't the father read the book and bring back the pancakes? [lost glasses] What is "grub"? What was the problem with the book that the father was using? What is a "flub"? Have you ever made one? How does reading help them help their father? Thirteenth spread: [All are in a sea of goo.] What is different about the words "Hotcake Hoodoo"? [Printed backward] Why are the words printed backward? [To reverse the magic spell.] What do you suppose is this gooey stuff that the kids and their father are in? [The pancakes didn't just come back, they went all the way back to the way they started, turning back into batter.] Did the father find his glasses yet? Fourteenth spread: [Kids put waffle in toaster.] Why don't the children want their father to make more pancakes? What are they afraid will happen? Why is the father pulling a cloth out of his sleeve? Do you see any pancakes in the picture? Fifteenth spread: [Father doing tricks.] What is the father doing? Why do you think some of the pancakes are still there? What are the other things in this room? [magician's equipment and props] Other Classroom Activities for The Great Pancake Escape Rhyming: An exercise to introduce the concept of rhyme to your students. Words as Names: This lesson introduces the idea that some words (nouns--if you are introducing this term) are the names of persons, places or things. Secondarily, it introduces the idea that words are conventions that are applied to things. Made up Words Of course there is no such thing as a "batter-fly" (is there?) Discuss how a poet or writer may sometimes make up a word to express a particular meaning. A World of Pancakes Pancakes exist in some form in just about every culture and may be used as an introduction to these cultures. Here is a sample listing of pancake-type foods from around the world and a related excercise for your students. Clip Art Here's a link to pancake-related copyright-free clipart from Art Today.com which you may wish to use on your handouts and otther class materials.   All artwork on this site (except above clipart) ©2002 Scott Goto  Return to main pancake page.  Return to Paul Many home page.