Siblings, Family Dynamics, and Fun with Food Humor in Entertaining Picture Book

Most families will have a time in family life when a new baby comes and the older sibling will be curious about being a big brother or sister. The older sibling might feel some pangs of jealousy or concern about whether they will be a good big brother or sister. How can they help take care of the new little brother or sister? Come along with Big Brother Peanut Butter by Terry Border and have some fun with this awesome picture book that can help the older sibling learn to be a great big brother or sister.

Peanut Butter's mom has a big announcement that he will soon be a big brother. Peanut Butter wonders if it will be hard to be a big brother. Dad tells him with tongue-in-cheek humor that being a big brother is "easy as pie" and suggests that he go and find Apple Pie who has two baby brothers, Cherry and Blueberry, for ideas to be a great older sibling. Peanut Butter continues along to ask his friend Cucumber who also has a younger sibling about what it takes to be a cool big brother. Peanut Butter wants to be "as cool as a cucumber" when the new baby arrives. Big Cheese has a younger sibling and Peanut Butter wants to be as important to his new sibling as Big Cheese is to his little sister. All of the food friends have ideas to share, but the best idea comes from Jelly. Jelly has an older big brother and just as jelly and peanut butter love each other on bread, Jelly LOVES his big brother and his brother LOVES him back. This is all it takes to be a good older sibling.

Terry Border writes with humor and fun food jokes. She is also the illustrator for her new book Big Brother Peanut Butter and the large realistic illustrations fill the pages with fun food characters that help tell the story. Young children might want to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to share along with Mom and Dad when reading this delightful picture book. There is a huge surprise ending for Border's Big Brother Peanut Butter.

Big Brother Peanut Butter was published by Philomel Books, a division of Penguin/Random House Publishers. It is recommended for ages 3-7 and has an ISBN of 978-1-5247-4006-1.

Terry Border's Big Brother Peanut Butter is a fun read aloud picture book to use in an early childhood classroom when teaching concepts about family dynamics. The curriculum in most early childhood classrooms includes lessons about siblings and how to live in peace with big/little brothers and sisters. Family concepts in an early childhood curriculum are always fun to teach.

*Read Big Brother Peanut Butter in a story time session. Make a class chart of children who have big brothers or sisters, or are themselves the big brother or sister. Math concepts can be incorporated into making a chart-divide the charts into boys and girls to compare the number of big brothers and sisters

*Brainstorm ideas with children about being a great big brother or sister. How do big brothers and sisters help younger siblings?

*The fun food characters can be a source of creating a lesson around favorite foods that one can share with siblings. Carrots, cheese, cucumbers, peanut butter, and jelly are all favorites. You might invite children to bring in these food items to include in the story time session. A tasting party is a fun way to add to the interest in the reading session.

*Bring in bread, peanut butter, and several varieties of jelly to make sandwiches after sharing in story time.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Check with parents to make sure their child is not allergic to nuts/peanut butter before making the sandwiches.