Tasty Tale: Toasty by Sarah Hwang

Toasty was a well-browned piece of bread who had an unusual affection for dogs.

HE LOVED WATCHING THE DOGS PLAY OUTSIDE. HE LOVED HOW THEY BARKED AND RAN WITH EACH OTHER IN THE PARK.

Toasty wanted to be like them, but dogs had four legs, and when he got down on all fours, he could only see the ground. Dogs slept at night in dog houses, and Toasty spent his nights in a toaster slot. Dogs were furry, and he was a slice of bread.

AND WHEN TOASTY ROLLED IN A PUDDLE, HE ENDED UP SOGGY.

But Toasty had one canine trick: He could bark!

So one day, Toasty slipped out the mail slot with a red ball and took it to the dog park for the dogs to chase with him. Predictably, the dogs, being dogs, were more interested in Toasty as potential food than as a playmate! Thinking quickly, Toast leaped on top of a picnicking girl's sandwich and blended in with the bread. The dogs were flummoxed, but the little girl was delighted to hear the extra slice of bread on her sandwich barking!

"I'VE ALWAYS WANTED A DOG, SHE SAID. "BUT I'M ALLERGIC!"

And Toasty was just the pet she needed! WOOF!

All's well that ends with a perfect pet! In this tasty tale, author-illustrator Sarah Hwang breaks the old parental dictum, "Don't play with your food!" in a savory picture book romp, Toasty (Margaret Ferguson Books, 2021). Joining the recent spat of food characters, such as Peanut Butter and Cupcake and Peanut Butter and Jellyfish (Turtleback School and Library Binding Edition) (I Can Read!: Level 1), Hwang's charming and versatile hero is delicious fare for the picture book crowd.

Says Publishers Weekly, "Toasty becomes the toast of the dog park. Newcomer Hwang’s quirky plot has the meandering joy of a small child’s storytelling logic."

I Gotta Be Me! Mixed Me by Taye Diggs

SOMETIMES WHEN WE'RE TOGETHER,

PEOPLE STARE AT WHATEVER.

"YOUR MOM AND DAD DON'T MATCH," THEY SAY. PEOPLE SEE US AND THEY LOOK AT US FUNNY.

SEE, MY DAD IS DEEP BROWN AND MY MOM'S A RICH CREAM AND HONEY.

MY MOM AND DAD SAY I'M BLENDED ... JUST RIGHT.

Being an in-between shade is not all that unusual these days, although this kid tops it off with bright red curly hair that is pretty unique. but Mixed Mike just makes a joke out of the combination.

"I'M A COMBO PLATE."

Taye Diggs' Mixed Me! (Feiwel and Friends, 2015) celebrates the combo plate that is our population, with humor, rhythm, and rhyme that makes the message go down like tutti-frutti ice cream, sweet and colorful. If we look at ourselves scientifically, we're all mutts, even if we're of pure white British Isles ancestry, because deep in our DNA (unless we are 100% African), we definitely have those genes from a whole other species of human, the Neanderthals, and probably those others, the Denisovans.

Says the New York Times reviewer, "[Illustrator] Evans' effervescent collages are an ideal match for the riffing, self-possessed voice Diggs gives Mike."