Oppositional? Peanut Butter's Tasty Opposites by Terry Border

What's NEAT? A baked potato! What's MESSY? A baked potato sitting on a squished frosted cupcake!

What's QUIET? A French fry reading a book.

What's NOISY? A can of baked beans blowing a trombone!

What's COLD? An ice cream cone, of course. But what's HOT? A bowl of alphabet soup.

If a crisp pretzel is HARD, what is SOFT?  A melty chocolate bar, of course.

These things are obviously OPPOSITES!

But what's UP and DOWN at the same time?

Ah! Easy Peas-y! A seesaw with a peanut person UP and a toast-and-jelly person down.

But is a peanut butter sandwich the opposite of a jelly sandwich? If not, what are they?

Terry Border's new board book for preschoolers, Peanut Butter's Tasty Opposites, takes on the nebulous subject of opposites, a non-concrete concept, in which the differences are, well, all relative. Author-illustrator Border pulls out his peanut people, first seen in his 2014 picture book, Peanut Butter and Cupcake in a second concept book for preschoolers that takes on the idea of ways things can be opposites. Border's artistic style is a truly tongue-in-cheek, with all tastebuds engaged, in his photographically-rendered Peanut, Jelly Sandwich, Cupcake, and French Fries with little twisted metal legs, demonstrating the concepts in his companion board book to Peanut Butter's Yummy Numbers: Ten Little Peanuts Jumping on the Bread!

Other foody, funny, and punny books by Terry Board are Happy Birthday, Cupcake! and his back-to-school hit, Milk Goes to School.

Are you reading this, Terry Border? How about taking it up a notch and letting your food group take on the grammatical category of Positives, Comparitives, and Superlatives--as in loud, louder, loudist or peanutty, peanuttier, and peanuty-ist!

The Whole Loaf! Big Brother Peanut Butter by Terry Border

Early one morning Peanut Butter's parents called him into the kitchen to tell him some good news.

"Guess what? You're going to a big brother!"

Now Peanut Butter's got the Big Brother Blues.

He'a always been the only slice at home, and he's liked it that way, free to play with his friend Jelly inside or out. What's an only slice supposed to do? He asks another slice, Apple Pie, who had two little brother tarts, Blueberry and Cherry.

"Easy as Pie!" she replied.

Peanut Butter isn't exactly reassured.

He seeks out his sandwich friend Cucumber, whose little brother Dill vouches that his big brother is always cool. The Big Cheese shows off his peppy sibling Pepper Jack, and his friend Jelly reassures him that he's up to the job.

"But I hope to see
That I need to act just like a good ...ME!

But Peanut Butter's resolve is shaken just a bit when he finds out that his family doesn't have a new baby brother at home waiting for him--it's more like a whole loaf of them, in Terry Border's Big Brother Peanut Butter (Philomel Books, 2018). Peanut Butter finds himself the biggest brother of a whole kitchen-full of fidgety little finger sandwiches, in Border's latest photo-collaged food characters series. It's a silly slice of sandwich family life, but Border's foodie artwork is tasty, and although Kirkus Reviews says "it's not the best thing since sliced bread," this one is a toothsome addition to the picture book pantry. Read more of Border's baked goods adventures here.

YUM-bers! Peanut Butter's Yummy Numbers by Terry Border

10 LITTLE PEANUTS JUMPING ON THE BREAD.

ONE FELL OFF...

Finish that rhyme in four words or less!

Yes, Terry Border's latest spin-off of his hit, Peanut Butter and Jelly: A Play Rhyme, parodies the popular countdown song about five little monkeys and a bed, using the author-illustrator's cutesy little peanuts taking their licks as each leaps one by one on the forbidden bread and land on its head. With this bouncy meter and repeated rhyme, kids will crave to join the countdown, learning their numbers as they sing along.

This time it's not Mama who steps in, but The Baker, who takes charge as his slice of bread gets flatter and sadder and the peanuts' boo boos add up, until it's back to the old oven to bake some more, in Border's latest board book for preschoolers, Peanut Butter's Yummy Numbers: Ten Little Peanuts Jumping on the Bread! (Philomel Books, 2016). There's plenty of punning and funning in store for youngsters until they are ready for arithmetical liftoff with the numbers from one to ten, along with Border's jolly peanut people artfully set in spot-art style against their bright-white pages.

Perhaps pair this one with the Eileen Christelow's beloved classical version, read first, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (A Five Little Monkeys Story), to set the stage for a comparison lesson (What's the same, and what is different?) with twice the counting practice along with double the barrel-of-monkeys snickers.

Noshing with the Nuts! Merry Christmas, Peanut! by Terry Border

It was Christmas Day, and Peanut and his parents were on their way to his grandmother's house for dinner.

Little Peanut is just nutty about Christmas, and visiting Groundnutter, er, Grandmother, just makes it butter, er, better!

But the ride is s-o-o-o long, especially when the family gets stuck in a holiday traffic jam, or is that a traffic jelly? And who is that beside the road looking un-done? It's his friend the Baker, moaning.

"Now I can't make my famous jelly doughnuts!"

"I'm the Merry Christmas Nut," said Peanut. "Come with us."

All's well until the Peanuts are ready to go over the river and through the woods, when they see that the bridge is out. Luckily, Sailor's boat is there to float them across, but he's no merry ferry man because he's all alone on Christmas, so the Merry Christmas Peanut invites him to join his party.

But just into the woods Lumberjack's sad face stops them again. His ax is broken and now he can't cut Christmas trees for everyone, but Peanut's invitation to join them makes him smile. The Peanut family and guests resume their journey until they run into a sudden snowfall. Father didn't pack his shovel, so Baker offers his spatula to clear the road, Lumber Jack lights his lantern, and the journey continues through the snow on the way to Grandmother's Christmas feast.

And it's hurray for the jelly doughnuts and even a snowy sleepover in store, in Terry Border's latest nutty tale, Merry Christmas, Peanut! (Philomel Books, 2017). It's another of author Border's little-legume-who-could stories, with artist Border milking the visual puns--the woods are filled with Christmas tree cookies with sprinkles--for all they are worth in his third book in his popular Peanut series. Border cleverly mixes real objects--peanuts, cookie trees, tinsel, and toys-- with his soft and wintry backgrounds in an eye-candy kind of illustrations which will please fans of his earlier Peanut Butter and Cupcake and its many spin-off board books, with just the right accompaniment, his hit go-with, Milk Goes to School. (see reviews here.) For a light and tasty Christmas treat, this one is both sweet and savory!

Making Grade A: Milk Goes to School by Terry Border

IT WAS THE MORNING OF THE FIRST DAY OF HER SCHOOL, AND MILK WAS FEELING A BIT SCARED.

"DON'T WORRY," SAID DAD. "YOU'RE LA CREME DE LA CREME--THE BEST OF THE BEST!"

So with a sparkly new backpack and a jaunty polka-dot bow, Milk is feeling fresh and filled with goodness as she arrives at her school, ready to make friends.

"I LIKE YOUR BACKPACK!" SAID CUPCAKE.

"THANK YOU!" SAID MILK. "MY DAD SAYS I'M THE CREME DE LA CREME!"

Waffle immediately decides that Milk is just too full of herself and fake whispers to Cupcake,

"I THINK THIS MILK IS SPOILED."

Milk's merry mood curdles a bit. First impressions are important, and now perhaps her efforts to upgrade herself have dampened her attempts to be nice. Still, she tries to make friends, asking Cupcake to sit by her and offering to share her crayons with Carrot.

"I DON'T CARROT ALL!" CARROT REPLIED. "LETTUCE ALL BE FRIENDS."

But Waffle is on a roll by now, trying to turn everything Milk says and does into evidence of being spoiled. Milk says she'd like to be Queen when she grows up, she tries to impress everyone by getting Grade A on the spelling test, and berates Soup for splattering her paper. Name-calling follows.

"SPOILED!" SAYS WAFFLE AT EVERY TURN.

"AWFUL WAFFLE!" RETORTS MILK.

Things have certainly gone "off" in her classroom. Milk is beginning to sour on this whole school thing and is sure nobody will ever be sweet to her again.

And then she slips on Banana's peel and spills herself all over the floor.

"QUICK! SOMEONE BRING IN THE KITTENS!" QUIPS EGG.

Beans suggests jumping up and down in the spilled Milk and making milk shakes. Waffle suggests cottage cheese. But Mrs. Pear steps in and the kids are reminded that Milk has tried to be nice sometimes, and they all stir themselves to return most of her to her carton. All the class find themselves a bit soggy.

Will Milk be really steamed? Is the first day of school spoiled for everyone?

In Terry Border's tongue-in-cheek latest in her comestibles series, Milk Goes to School (Philomel Books, 2016), all ends with a laugh as Milk points out that, thanks to her, everyone is now a little la creme de la creme, too. Savvy second or third-grade readers will find the punny food quips comically cheesy, while young kids will be amused by Border's anthropomorphic groceries with bent wire arms and legs, seated at desks and doing Kindergarten activities. Fans of Border's sweet 'n' silly foodie stories, Peanut Butter and Cupcake and Happy Birthday, Cupcake! will likely eat this one up.