Easy Reader Series Series: Cornbread & Poppy

I remember this winning some big award…which led me to reading the first book in this series, and now that I’m reading them all, I’m unable to figure out why this came across my radar to begin with. Oh, to be libraries. It didn’t win a Geisel, like I thought. Maybe it won Mock Geisels or Mock Caldecott’s? Anyway….they’re adorable little books, and book 3 is coming out this September, so why not take them all into consideration together? I don’t think these have as much KID appeal as some Easy Reader titles, but if you’ve got an old soul, or someone who loves Frog and Toad, try these out!

Cornbread & Poppy

Cornbread and Poppy are two mice friends who are opposites–one likes to prepare, one prefers to live in the moment–but with winter coming, reckless Poppy is in danger of starving if they don’t find some food. After looking everywhere, Poppy and Cornbread decide to go up the dangerous Holler Mountain in search of food, and they do indeed find food, and an old friend. It’s a cute book that will remind adults of Frog and Toad–an older style of illustration, but award winning–a slower pace, an easy reader with chapters and a lot of illustrations. I like this one! It’s sweet!

Cornbread & Poppy at the Carnival

The carnival comes to town, and even though Cornbread isn’t as adventurous as Poppy, she reminds him that she’s always been there for him during the scary things. They have a lovely time at the carnival–playing games, eating fried apple fritters, and even riding the ferris wheel, where we learn Poppy is afraid of heights. But at the end of a long day, the appearance of a big peanut almost tears the two friends apart, until they remember the power of sharing…and moving quickly. Equally cute as the debut story, I feel like we live in their world now in a way I’m really enjoying!

Cornbread & Poppy at the Museum

It’s the local museum’s first Founder’s Gala, and of course astute scholar Cornbread is excited to go, and bring Poppy as her guest, but she’s less than enthused with the display of toothbrushes through time, a perfumed vase, insects, etc. When it’s revealed that Poppy is related to the museum founders, Cornbread feels left out and knocks over the prize vase on accident, which leads to an opportunity for the friends to come together again and use Poppy’s family connection to fix the vase problem. This was a fun story—I read an arc of it so I didn’t have colored illustrations—but I liked seeing the way it represented museums as a place with different things to interest different kinds of people.