MOWMT Day #31: Lynne Marie and Dea Use Food to Foster Learning

Using Food to Foster Learning in Picture Books

By Lynne Marie and Dea Lenihan

Our next picture book, American Pie by Lynne Marie with Art by Dea Lenihan, (arriving May 2023), combines food, friendship, culture and celebration in a sweet story of one immigrant’s desire to enjoy a proper Fourth of July.

Watson the Wombat can’t wait to celebrate his 1st 4th of July in the USA, but can 1 mouse make a parade, a picnic, or apple pie? With no apples? Watson’s quest for apples brings everything he wanted and more in this sweet celebration of America, culture and friendships.

Our book explores ways to celebrate and inspires the ability to shift expectations. And encourages positive problem-solving, via making the best of a challenging situation and not giving up.

It also encourages sharing and being open to new people and outcomes, which many times can lead to achieving something even better than you originally expected!

In Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Anthony, Mr. Panda has a colorful box of doughnuts. When he tries to share them, the responses aren’t quite what he was looking for. But when Lemur answers appropriately, and says the magic word PLEASE, then Mr. Panda gives her the entire box. He does not like donuts! This book offers a variety of learning experiences for the reader, including colors, appropriate / inappropriate responses and manners.

In I Love Cake, Starring Rabbit, Porcupine and Moose by Tammi Sauer, Art by Angie Rozelaar, the three best friends play the blame game when Rabbit’s cake disappears. The SEL book suggests options on how we might make our mistakes up to our friends. And it offers a satisfying resolution when the friends learn what they love even more than cake.

Another example is Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finnison, Art by Brianne Farley. This book also features doughnuts, but offers the opportunity to count and learn fractions, as well as fosters sharing. This book is packed with fun language, consonance and assonance and onomatopoeia! And it has some important SEL components to being a good friend and thinking of others.

There are so many tasty ways to integrate food into your picture books – and a recipe in the backmatter is a nice touch! Enjoy! Sharing food is a fun way to connect and celebrate culture, friendship, manners, counting and more!

And keep an eye out for Watson and Friends who will be starting their celebration in May, 2023! Then check out the recipe and enjoy your own piece of American Pie!

Lynne Marie and Dea are giving away several prizes: One winner will get a Rate Your Story speedpass, another will receive a half-hour Zoom session with Lynne Marie, another will get a digital copy of American Pie, and another will receive a digital copy of the American Pie coloring book.

BIOS: Lynne Marie is the author of Hedgehog Goes to Kindergarten -- art by Anne Kennedy (Scholastic 2011), Hedgehog's 100th Day of School -- art by Lorna Hussey (Scholastic 2017), The Star of the Christmas Play -- art by Lorna Hussey (Beaming Books 2018), Moldilocks and the 3 Scares -- art by David Rodriguez Lorenzo (Sterling 2019 and Scholastic 2019) and Let’s Eat! Mealtime Around the World -- art by Parwinder Singh (Beaming Books 2019), The Three Little Pigs and the Rocket Project and The Three Little Pigs and the Rocket Project Coloring Book -- art by Wendy Fedan (Mac and Cheese Press 2022), The Palace Rat -- art by Eva Santana (Yeehoo Press, 2023) and more, forthcoming.

She’s the Owner/Director of RateYourStory.org, ThePictureBookMechanic.com, and a Travel Agent. In addition, she’s the Creator/Host of March On With Mentor Texts (www.rateyourstory.org/march-on) and Mentor Text Talk by Rate Your Story), the Co-Host of #SeasonsOfKidLit (www.seasonsofkidlit.com), a Cybils Judge since 2016 (www.cybils.org) and a Feature Columnist at Children’s Book Insider (www.writeforkids.org).

When she’s not celebrating culture, she lives in the heart of Florida with her family and a Schipperke named Anakin and a Chihuahua named Marlowe. Visit her at www.LiterallyLynneMarie.com. Lynne Marie is represented by Marisa Cleveland of www.theseymouragency.com.

Dea Lenihan is an artist and writer. She’s making her children’s book illustration debut in American Pie by Lynne Marie, Mac and Cheese Press (May 2023). She has designed many best-selling coloring books for adults, and a book she illustrated, THE OPEN PILLOW, was featured for a Special Storytime Weekend at The Eric Carle Museum of Storytime Art. She lives on the coast of New Jersey, and studied painting, illustration, and drawing at Rutgers University and Montclair State. She has a passion for vintage writing instruments, ghost stories, and has a tendency to root for the underdog. She is probably drawing something right now with Buddy the mean conure sitting on her shoulder. Visit her at dealenihan.com.

She is represented by Elisa Houout of the Seymour Agency.