Happy Peanut Butter Day!
Even if you’re allergic to peanut butter you’ll enjoy these wonderful poems and picture books dedicated to the sticky stuff.
But first, a quick little video by Raffi singing Peanut Butter Sandwich…
Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches written by Lisa Broadie Cook and illustrated by Jack E. Davis (2011)
Martin MacGregor was having homework problems. His substitute teacher gave a mountain of homework every night. And everyday Martin MacGregor had to miss recess because of his homework. On Monday, he spilled peanut butter on his homework and the dog ate it. On Tuesday, he left it in his pocket and it got washed with the laundry. On Wednesday, he picked up his little sister’s backpack instead of his own and brought a doll to school instead of his homework. On Thursday, he did the boring definitions homework his teacher gave him and then made up his own homework about something he wanted to learn about… tarantulas. On Friday, the homework his teacher has assigned was blown away by the wind. But the next week, his regular teacher returned. And the homework that night was to find out as many facts as you could about tarantulas… the person who had the most fact the next day got to take care of the class pet (tarantula) and take it home for the weekend. Finally… homework Martin MacGregor wanted to do!
The Peanut Butter Jam written by Elizabeth Sussman Nassau and illustrated by Margot Janet Ott (2001)
Sam was tired of sitting alone in the lunchroom and being teased for his peanut allergies. One day, the class was making bird feeders with ice-cream cones, peanut butter, and bird seeds. Jack teased Sam who had to sit at the teacher’s desk pouring out the bird seeds, but not able to make a bird feeder. Sam decided to make one anyway. Nothing seemed to happen at first, then all of the sudden Sam’s face swelled up and he had trouble breathing. His teacher took him to the nurse’s office immediately where he got a shot and some liquid medicine. Then he took a ride in an ambulance to the emergency room. When he returned to school the next day, his friend Jack apologized and admitted that he had allergies too… to cats.
Peanut-Butter Sandwich from the collection of poems written by Shel Silverstein published in his anthology Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974)
This is the story of a silly young king who only loved one thing… a peanut butter sandwich. His scepter and his royal gowns were all sticky from the peanut butter sandwiches and his subjects were all silly fools because he ordered that the only thing that they could learn in school was how to make a peanut butter sandwich. He refused to eat anything else, until one day when his jaws were glued shut from all the peanut butter sandwiches he’d eaten. Royal doctors, royal dentists, even royal plumbers could not unary his jaws. Finally, when every subject worked together to open his mouth, the first thing he said was ‘how about another peanut butter sandwich?’
Juliana Lee 
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