The Table Sets Itself Comes to Breakfast…Stays for Lunch…and Dinner…
So, I’m the naughty aunt who gives out fart books for Christmas. I couldn’t help it. Farts are funny.
I bought The Table Sets Itself by Ben Clanton (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2013) last spring after reading its starred Kirkus Review. My daughter, close in age to the protagonist, Izzy, was similarly obsessed with setting the table.
However, rather than joining us for breakfast (when we read books to begin our day), The Table Sets Itself spent its first few months here on the shelf.
I’d scanned through it and the mulitgenre format didn’t appeal.
With the occasional exception, I gravitate to picture books with more traditional format and prose. The Table Sets Itself was a combination of dialogue tags, sound effects, shopping lists, handwritten font, bold font, underlined font, etc! It appeared to be a graphic novel, an epistolary novel and traditional prose.
“Darn,” I thought. “Too gimmicky. This would be too hard to read out loud.” Reading dialogue tags to toddlers intimidated me.
Alas, never judge a book by its layout. And always judge a book by its Kirkus review.
One morning when we were feeling tired of our usual breakfast book fare, I pulled The Table Sets Itself off the shelf and set it on the table, right in between my steaming coffee cup and bowl of oatmeal.
I took a sip. And then a bite. And began:
“Izzy and her friends Dish, Fork, Knife, Spoon, Cup and Napkin had waited for what felt like a bigillion years to set the table themselves. So when Mom finally asked Izzy to help for the first time, they all set to it straight away.”
The illustration on this first page shows the anthropomorphized Fork driving a toy fire truck toward the table. I read the sound effect: “wee woo” and Knife’s (who is riding at the top of the reeled out ladder) dialogue tag: “whoo-hoo!”
(That wasn’t so hard…and the kids seemed to be following…)
The novelty of setting the table wears off quickly, and so Izzy and her friends experiment with alternative table settings (cup on napkin, cup on Izzy’s head, Izzy standing on her head)…and then…the picture that sealed this book forever on our list of favorites:
Spoon, fork and knife are all standing inside Cup, who is filled with water. With blushed cheeks and an embarrassed glance elsewhere it is clear that the sound effect: “toot!” came from Spoon. Fork is sporting a very cross-looking unibrow and Knife hollers: “ew! cut it out!”
I began this blog writing about books that my kids asked me to read again, and again, and again.
I have read these five words: “toot! ew! cut it out!” a “BAGILLION” times.
“toot! ew! cut it out!”
“Read it again!”
“toot! ew! cut it out!”
“Read it again!”
“toot! ew! cut it out!”
“Read it again!”
When we finally move on, it isn’t for long…
“Go back to the toot page!”
“Read it again!”
Giggle. Giggle. Giggle.
I can be on the second to last page of the book and STILL get asked to go back to THE TOOT.
Farts are that funny.
The rest of the book, if you get a chance to read it, is that funny too.
Izzy’s temperament and creativity are spot on.
The puns are perfect.
“Izzy and her friends loved their new spots on the table [Izzy’s new seat is on the table] but Izzy’s parents didn’t understand….[after some scolding] everyone went back to their old places. Nobody was happy, but Dish and Spoon were especially sour. They had REALLY liked being next to each other, dishing out out the latest scoop, so…Dish ran away with Spoon.”
The rest of the book follows Izzy’s journey to find her lost friends.
My kids’ second favorite page reads: “They asked EVERYONE if they had seen Dish and Spoon. Even the scary monster in Izzy’s closet.” The blue, hairy monster in Izzy’s closet is so tall we can only see his long legs, but from the deep, dark, depths he shouts down: “NICE TO EAT YOU!”
I turn the page.
“Wait! I want to see the monster AGAIN!”
Finally, we move on…
“Where is the universe were Dish and Spoon?” we read, and we see Izzy looking out her window through a telescope at the cow jumping over the moon. Clanton didn’t need to try to blend the nursery rhyme into the text. They subtlety of its illustrated presence is entertaining for adults and a perfect prompt for kids to sing it out on their own.
Finally, Izzy gets a letter from Dish and Spoon. They are on a worldly adventure, sending snail mail updates from France, Italy, China and Greece.
There are more puns. There are tidbits of multicultural culinary customs; there are dynamic, engaging mulitgenre illustrations that make this book just as much fun to look at as it is (when given a fair chance!) to read.
Finally, with a bribe of homemade macaroni and cheese, Dish and Spoon do come home, and they’ve brought friends. “Niaho! Dish and Spoon said we should come visit. Hope you don’t mind if we STICK around for awhile,” I read.
And so, when I gave this book out at Christmas, I didn’t just give it. I hovered as kids unwrapped it, and as soon as they did, I said, “Guess what!? There is a toot in this book!”
“What?”
“In this book, a spoon toots! Do you want to see!?”
“Yes!”
I find the page.
I read: “toot! ew cut it out!”
Again, and again, and again.
Picture Book House 
One Response to “The Table Sets Itself Comes to Breakfast…Stays for Lunch…and Dinner…”
I’m with you! You can’t beat a good Toot!!! This sounds like a great read aloud!