Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Fernandez. This is the Bread the Hen Baked

This is the Bread the Hen Baked is a children's book by Emily Jakes Fernandez, with art by Don Stuart, published in 1992. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

This book has an interesting take on the "House that Jack Built" type of story because in each new segment, there is a wheel: wheel on a bicycle, wheel on a cart, grinding wheel, wheel in a mixer, wheel-shaped handle on the oven, cart wheel, and a bike wheel. The development is more focused on the wheels, and there is not really a cumulative chain but instead something more like a refrain that repeats after a certain point about "the bread / that was made from the flour / that came from the wheat / that went into the bread that hen baked." 

The illustrations are very nice, and it's an intriguing experiment, but I'm not really sure it's one I would encourage aspiring writers to imitate. The use of the wheel was kind of awkward, and the wheels did not contribute anything to the chain itself, and so, apparently, the chain stopped growing.

 I wonder if it would be possible to retell it so that the wheels become part of the chain? I might give that a try just out of curiosity, but I'm not optimistic. I'm all for experimenting and trying different things, but sometimes something that you try does not turn out quite right, and that's what I would say about this experiment, at least in terms of inspiring imitations.



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