The Screaming Chef - Hardcover

Ackerman, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1567925987 ISBN 13: 9781567925982

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2017

Synopsis

Comfort food indeed! Eating outrageously fine cuisine is the sole activity that stops this young lad from screaming incessantly. But one fateful night, when his parents accidentally burn dinner, the boy's temper flares, and he begins to yell. Tired of all the noise, Mom and Dad relinquish all cooking responsibilities, leaving it all up to him. E voila! The boy so enjoys cooking that he sings instead of screams, and finds that he is so talented that his parents open a restaurant with the boy as head chef. But life in the kitchen of an acclaimed and busy restaurant is not easy. When the boy begins to make mistakes, will his penchant for earsplitting noise ruin everything?

From the creators of The Lonely Phone Booth and The Lonely Typewriter are at it again in their new children s book The Screaming Chef. Witty text and clever illustrations combine to create a silly yet serious picture book for readers of all ages which teaches that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, especially when you re singing.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Ackerman has made two books with Max Dalton. Their first book, The Lonely Phone Booth, was selected for the Smithsonian s 2010 Notable Books for Children and adapted and produced as a musical at the Manhattan Children s Theater. Peter co-wrote the movies Ice Age and Ice Age 3. Currently he is a writer on the TV show The Americans.
Max Dalton lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has been drawing since he was two or three years old. Max has too many interests to list here from writing to painting to playing music and reading about animals but his all-time favorite is drawing. He is the illustrator of The Lonely Phone Booth, The Lonely Typewriter, and Extreme Opposites.

From School Library Journal:

K-Gr 2—A boy prone to screaming takes up cooking in this muddled picture book. The unnamed child begins as a terror—his parents have no solution for the fits that occur frequently and without any obvious provocation. Fortunately, the boy's parents are excellent cooks, and the child is happy when his mouth is full of food. Unfortunately, he quickly becomes rather rotund. The solution: teach him to cook for himself. Before long, he is dicing daikon and filleting fish and even singing instead of screaming. Next comes his own restaurant, Boy, where his innovative creations cause increasingly ridiculous reactions from customers enraptured by his flavors. Trouble arrives one busy night when the boy loses his focus and accidentally mixes up his recipes. Upset over his errors, he relapses into a tantrum that threatens to chase away his customers. Surprisingly, all it takes is a stern word from his parents and the possibility of losing the restaurant to quiet him down and turn him into a singing, happy chef once again, a far too easy resolution. Former screenwriter Ackerman's attempt at a humorous tale of bad behavior has moments of silliness that may elicit giggles, but overall, it fails to cohere into an engaging narrative. The overly long narrative feels labored by the list of amusing customer antics, and the protagonist lacks any sort of personality. Dalton's cartoon illustrations are relatively static, frequently repeating the same narrow range of facial and body expressions for the boy and his parents. While appropriate for the simple story line, they fail to elevate the text. VERDICT Mildly amusing but ultimately unsatisfying fare.—Chelsea Couillard-Smith, Hennepin County Library, MN

About this edition

• Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1567925987
• ISBN 13: 9781567925982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Dalton Max