How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps

Written and illustrated by Bambi Edlund

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-516-7

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2023

 

Making a peanut butter and banana sandwich may never have been so complicated but it was probably also never so much fun and inclusive. 

 

As with any recipe, there is a list of ingredients. We might have suggested bread, peanut butter, and bananas would have sufficed for this sandwich but that's just not enough, apparently. Because it's a group effort, Bambi Edlund lists 19 things you will need, including a variety of animals to undertake the various steps. 

From How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps, written and illustrated by Bambi Edlund

It is a complicated recipe–17 steps, after all–but it's not just putting stuff on bread. Nope, you need to get the bread first. How are these animals going to get the bread? These enterprising, and talented, creatures are going to work for it. The crows grab a hat (which they will ultimately return) in which the juggling raccoon will gather tips. The coins are used to purchase bananas, bread, and nuts. Now with the ingredients in hand, the peanuts are shelled and smooshed by a clog-dancing miniature mule, a knife whittled by a toothy beaver, and bananas peeled and sliced by crows and a badger. Then it's an assembly line to make enough for an all-inclusive park party.

From How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps, written and illustrated by Bambi Edlund

I like how Bambi Edlund has kept her "recipe" story playful but nice. I've tired of movies, commercials, and stories in which bad behaviour, like lying, cheating, stealing, and rudeness, has become normalized to be seen as cute and funny. But Bambi Edlund keeps the cuteness without the foulness. Here she gives us an assortment of animals who work together, who earn the money to pay for the ingredients they take from the bakery, produce and nut stores, and who return things like a hat that they borrow. You can't convince me that that isn't charming in its sweetness and goodness.

From How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwich in 17 Easy Steps, written and illustrated by Bambi Edlund

Beyond Bambi Edlund's straightforward text, easily read by young children and understood by them, are her illustrations. Vancouver's Bambi Edlund keeps her art simple–each animal is easily recognizable–and the settings, whether outdoors or in a shop, are uncluttered and familiar. Young readers will be able to put the words with the pictures and see more in the story. It will entertain, give them smiles, and make them feel part of the process, especially the next time they might make their own peanut butter sandwich.