Title: A Fine Dessert
Author: Emily Jenkins
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Publisher: Schwartz and Wade
Year: 2015
Story Element PATTERNS This book does a superb job of weaving a story through patterns. Four families across four centuries make the same dessert. As teachers often do, I will create a compare and contrast chart to review the story for you. If you are doing this with children, of course, you will have them create their own charts or make a class chart together. (I’m sorry I can’t figure out how to box the information into ‘charts’ here, so I simply listed it in columns.)
1710 1810 1910 2010
Lyme, England Charleston, SC Boston, MA San Diego, CA
town plantation city city
girl and mother girl and mother girl and mother boy and father
pick blackberries pick blackberries open-air market supermarket
milked cow horse-drawn wagon delivery man supermarket
skimmed cream delivered cream pasteurized cream pasteurized organic
—– —– recipe book recipe on internet
beat w/ soft twigs beat w/metal whisk rotary beaters electric mixer
15 minutes 10 minutes 5 minutes 2 minutes
water from well water from well water from sink water in sink
strained – muslin smashed – sieve smashed – sieve food processor
poured sugar poured sugar poured sugar poured sugar
mixed in cream mixed in cream mixed in cream mixed in cream
girl licked spoon girl licked spoon girl licked spatula boy licked spatula
ice pit in hillside box in basement ice box in kitchen refrigerator in kitchen
sheets of winter ice blocks of ice blocks of ice (electricity)
family supper served master’s family family dinner guests for dinner
blackberry fool blackberry fool blackberry fool blackberry fool
in blue dishes in yellow dishes in green dishes in white dishes
girl licked bowl mother/girl licked bowl girl licked bowl boy licked bowl
in kitchen hidden in closet in kitchen in kitchen
—————————— What a fine dessert! —————————-
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Juliana Lee 
I love the chart! This is a great concept for a picture book – so educational for kids to see the way certain things evolve over time while others stay the same, and in a way that they can really grasp and enjoy. Thank goodness one thing that hasn’t changed is that kids are still licking the bowl!
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Hahahaha… yes! Where would we be if kids didn’t still lick the bowl! 🙂
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That is SO awesome. Love the 4 generations and the similarities and differences. Being published in 2015, they sure picked a “timeless” cover to represent ages past. This sounds like something I’d like to write, pattern-wise at least. Thanks for sharing the way you did.
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You’re so welcome. It was so well done. I’m sure older kids could easily pick up the pattern and start expecting similarities and differences as they go along.
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Looks like great teaching to me! Love the way this chart defines the patterns for a reader. Thanks Juliana.
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You’re quite welcome. This book made it really easy to demonstrate.
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Juliana, Thanks for taking the time to chart this book. I haven’t heard of blackberry fool.
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I know! Such an easy recipe and I’ve never had it. Must remedy that soon.
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that’s the first time I’ve seen a story summed up in a chart but it actually worked better than if you had tried to write it out.
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Thanks Linda. It’s an old teacher’s trick. (The trick is old, not the teacher!) 🙂
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Sounds like an wonderful story that crosses time in a unique way!
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Yes, and with such a simple recipe kids can see how much and how little things change over 400 years!
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Great way of synthesizing the story!
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Thank you. But really, this book lays it out so well, this is easy to do! Glad you liked it!
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