Marsupial Sue Presents the Runaway Pancake

Great story for children! Love the CD

I gave this book to a kindergarten classroom studying Australia and they loved it! The pictures are colorful, the CD and song and animated and catchy. It is a fun story whether you listen to the CD or not. John Lithgow makes it great with his reading the story and singing the song!

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Let your kids sing "No, no, no....."

We love this book, and our kids love singing along with the Pancake. It's just a lot of fun.

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This book is stimulating for family and as a teacher, it has been very endearing for the children I have used it with.

I have Thoroughly enjoyed using this book with my 4 and 5 yrs old class. I put it in the CD when I got it home and played it for my husband. We have always loved John Lithgow and his voice makes it come alive. I have played the CD 2times for the kids and taken it home. Once I didn't have a CD and read it myself but I didn't have the same edge as the CD. All the children were singing along. Splendid for memory. I actually know a child who seriously stutters and he can sing the song perfectly. Mel Tillis anyone? So this book is good for all ages and very good for spontaneous reaction from children. The only drawback was that one little girl was upset over the ending, and sensitive to the fact the pancakes was eaten whole. This took some explaining about the fantasy of the book, teaching them that all the characters in the book were fictional.

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Kids love to hear John Lithgow sing about Marsupial Sue!

I teach kindergarten and I had to purchase a copy so we can have our own in the classroom. I use it when we read variations of the gingerbread man.

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Not original, but fun

Celebrity authored books are all the rage; a famous name helps sell copies and publishers are eager to promote such books. Unfortunately, being a celebrity does not make that person a good writer and many of these books suffer from poor plots, substandard writing or storylines that lack originality. Fortunately, Marsupial Sue Present The Runaway Pancake rises above the clutter of lackluster celebrity books for children.

In Marsupial Sue, Sue and her friends are putting on a play with Sue in the lead role of Auntie May. When Auntie May decides to cook herself a pancake, the narrator of the play cautions that "You must never, ever, EVER cook a pancake in a hot oven. And my story will tell you why."

Auntie May puts her pancake in the oven and then does housework while her lunch cooks. But she soon hears a noise from inside the oven. When she opens the door, out pops her pancake, complete with eyes, nose, mouth and feet. As her lunch runs away, Auntie May pleads for it to return. The pancake teases,

"No, no.
No, no, no.
I'm too fast, you're too slow.
Pan, pan, patty-cake pan,
I can get away from you, I can!"

With Auntie May following, the pancake comes upon a dog who is also eager to eat it, but the pancake refuses to be anybody's lunch and repeats his jingle, this time adding a line about the dog. Soon, the pancake has a whole host of animals, along with Auntie May, chasing him and the jingle he repeats on each page has grown much longer, as he adds a line for each animal. It looks as though the pancake might escape until he comes upon the sly, old red fox. (It is odd that the illustrator choose to draw the red fox as purple.)

Marsupial Sue is not a new theme, it's a rehashing of the runaway gingerbread man, however, Lithgow does a good job of recounting the adventure. Children will enjoy the ever growing jingle and have fun anticipating what will happen as the pancake meets each new animal. I'm not sure why Lithgow choose to present the story as if Marsupial Sue and her friends were putting on a play. The play aspect gets lost in the story and serves no purpose.

Quill says: Better than most celebrity authored stories, it's not original, but it is fun.

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A Runaway Hit

This book and cd are amazing...my son absolutely loves it. He shared it with his Pre K class and they keep asking him to bring it back. The story is fun and the music is contagious...sure to be a children's classic!

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awesome

My son is 5 years old and loves animals , loves story's and this book... i got him for his birthday ,it comes with a cd that also has john lithgow telling the story and singing the song its deightful ,my son reads along with it sings the song ....just truly laughs and sings and reads it over and over filled with lots of animals and of course my sons favitote food ..panckaes so its a winner can't wait for the next one!

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