PreS-Gr 1—Ben has some fun at the expense of his little sister, who is just learning how to talk. Jessie tries to be polite, saying "peas" when she means "please." Unfortunately, their babysitter, Rachel, does not understand baby talk. When Jessie asks for "orange juice peas," Rachel considers this an odd request but dutifully adds a few peas to the glass of OJ. Jessie sees the floating green things, yells "Yack!" and asks for "boon peas." Smirking Ben translates "spoon" but leaves off the other word, so Jessie is given a spoonful of peas. This scenario repeats with milk and dessert, until Ben finally takes pity on his suffering sister and perplexed babysitter and offers an explanation. The story is accompanied by soft illustrations of adorable, rosy-cheeked children whose facial expressions clearly convey their feelings of frustration, amusement, and confusion. The large, clear type makes the book a good choice for one-on-one sharing. The book's Scottish setting is reflected in some of the British terms used in the text, such as "tea" for dinner and "pudding" for dessert, and children may wonder why the father is wearing a skirt (kilt).—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT
A big brother allows the baby sitter to misunderstand his little sister in this Scottish import. Small Jessie is just learning words, and when she says "please" it sounds just like PEAS. Mum and Dad are off to a ceilidh (Dad's in his kilt and Mum's in her dancing boots), and they tell Rachel, the baby sitter, to give Jessie anything she asks for, as she is just getting over a cold. So when she asks for "Orange juice peas" Rachel gamely finds some leftover cooked peas in the fridge and drops a few in the juice. Jessie is not pleased, and she asks for a "Boon peas!" Ben translates "spoon" but not the other, so Jessie gets a spoon with peas, which she uses to get the peas out of her juice. Alas, though, now the orange juice tastes of peas. "Yack!" says Jessie. This continues. While Ben tries to hold in his giggles, Jessie grows ever more frustrated, and Rachel gets increasingly mystified. There are peas all over the place. Finally, Ben explains that Jessie means "please," not that she wants peas with everything. The cheerful and individualized characters, bright surroundings and patterned fabric-collage effects make for winning pages, and the use of British/Scots terms are easily understood in context. This provides both a fairly high cute factor and hard evidence that big brothers tend to be the same everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)
