Spreckle's Snack Surprise

by Sandra Salsbury

Overview

A celebration of found family, experimentation, disappointment, and delightful surprises, plus what’s truly important in life—delicious snacks.

Spreckle the dragon lives on a farm with her loving family of chickens. It is a fine home, but she is fed up with their diet of dried corn and slugs, Spreckle explores the bounty of snacks the farm has to offer, from hay to pig slop. Tragically, nothing hits the spot.

Life without a decent snack is hardly a life at all, as far as Spreckle is concerned. Will this hungry dragon with a burning need for the perfect snack ever find satisfaction?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682634820
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	07/04/2023
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	136,062
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.34(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

The author-illustrator of The Best Friend in the Whole World, Sandra Salsbury received the 2018 SCBWI Don Freeman Illustration Grant. She has a BFA and MFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and lives in Berkeley, California, where she cares for numerous house plants and a software engineer. She enjoys hiking, snooping at open houses, and telling people what to do on the internet.

Editorial Reviews

"Bright reds and purples stand out against subtle yellows and greens in the whimsical watercolors of this toothsome tale."—Foreword Reviews

"Like a delicious snack, this witty and funny picture book will be devoured by youngsters."—School Library Journal

"Readers will savor this delectable treat and will want to return to it again and again."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

08/01/2023

PreS-K—An adorable and comically told story about a dragon's arduous journey for snacks and the life lessons she learns along the way. Spreckle is a dragon hatched among chickens. She loves her family, but she hates their snacks (slugs and seed corn). So she decides that the only logical course of action is to leave the nest in search of the elusive perfect snack. When she finally finds it, in a popsicle truck, she learns that a dragon's fiery ways and icy snacks are less than ideal matches, and she is hungrier than ever! Returning home, and with her family's support and the power of her fiery breath, Spreckle finds that the tastiest treat has been in front of her all along. With no more than two short sentences per page, the text is digestible and engaging for young readers. The cartoony, watercolor illustrations hilariously complement the text, and readers will delight in their details across multiple readings. VERDICT Like a delicious snack, this witty and funny picture book will be devoured by youngsters.—Maria Bohan

School Library Journal

2023-04-24
Is life without decent snacks worth living?

Spreckle, a red dragon inexplicably hatched among farm chickens, appreciates her fine home, cozy bed, fluffy mama, and snuggly siblings but dislikes the between-meals fare that the chickens appreciate. You try slimy slugs and dried corn. So Spreckle flies the coop. Life outside the henhouse is rife with goodies, but Spreckle is unimpressed. A colorful ice pop from a passing ice cream truck looks perfect but is a melting, messy disappointment. Spreckle glumly decides there are “no good snacks anywhere in the entire world.” When it starts to rain, Spreckle realizes that maybe food isn’t as important as her loving mama and siblings, who find and comfort the cold, lonely dragon. Spreckle catches a cold in the rain, and a fiery sneeze results in Spreckle’s inadvertently discovering the best snack ever. (Hint: Think heated dried corn kernels.) This sweet, comical tale is downright delicious, and children will gobble it up. Spreckle is an adorably winning character who finds what she’s been looking for at home in the bosom of family—a reassuring message for kids. The spirited illustrations, rendered in pencil, watercolor, and Photoshop (art media are riotously noted on the back cover’s “nutritional label”), are enhanced with amusing font changes, insets, arrows, and onomatopoeic sound effects. Background human figures are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Readers will savor this delectable treat and will want to return to it again and again. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews