About the Holiday

Are your favorite pancakes loaded with luscious blueberries? Then you’ve landed on the right holiday! Today’s celebration gives you the perfect reason to indulge, so find those blueberries tucked in the freezer or run to the store and whip up a batch of these palate-pleasing pancakes for breakfast or dinner!

Thank you to Carrie Finison and G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for sending me a copy of this book for review!

Plenty of Pancakes

Written by Carrie Finison | Illustrated by Brianne Farley

Topsy the opossum is planning a surprise “Welcome Spring” big pancake breakfast to welcome back her bear friend LouAnn from her winter hibernation. She’s already invited all of their friends and now it’s time to start cooking. What’s on the menu? “They’ll have berries with syrup, and cider to share, and plenty of pancakes, enough for a bear!”

Topsy measures and pours and fries up five perfect pancakes. Whistling a tune, she walks away for a moment then hears a “clunk!” Turning around, she sees the plate is empty. She attributes the loss to hungry squirrels, and whips up another batch. Soon, she has “five perfect pancakes, hot from the pan. / Tender and crispy, and all for—”

But in the time it would take to say “LouAnn,” this stack disappears too. Then another and another! At last, Tospy’s relieved to find all of her other guests arriving and ready to help. With so many bakers and a groundhog to guard them, the group gets to work. “Topsy counts pancakes: five, ten, fifteen, twenty. / Twenty’s a lot . . . but she’s not sure it’s PLENTY.” And so . . . they make more.

Just then LouAnn emerges from her cabin with a surprise. She has two new babies to introduce, “. . . but Topsy’s suspicious. / She looks at the cubs and sees there are traces / of pancake all over their sweet fuzzy faces.” Topsy doesn’t let on, though, and just makes a toast “to babies and spring” as the friends all share pancakes aplenty!

Carrie Finison’s recipe for a delectable story time contains all the ingredients kids clamor for—humor, drama, endearing characters, and the chance to be in on a secret right from the start. Finison’s rollicking sentences bounce and bound through the story with perfect rhythm and rhyme, and children will eagerly chime in on the funny repeat and clipped-off phrasing “. . . and all for—.” Plenty of Pancakes is a joy to read aloud, fun for kids who like to count, and a book that both children and adults will choose again and again.

Brianne Farley invites readers to this forest feast with her bright, delightful gouache and pencil illustrations that are loaded with personality and clever details (LouAnn’s alarm clock displays only pictographs for spring, summer, fall, and winter). Farley whips up excitement with action-packed pages where whisks spin, pancakes fly, the serving plate clunks, thunks, and crashes, and everyone pitches in to make this “welcome back” breakfast a blast. Kids will especially like spying the two little cubs that escape Topsy’s notice hiding here and there just within reach to gobble up stacks of treats.

Exuberant, warmhearted, and inviting readers’ giggly participation, Plenty of Pancakes makes a perfect gift and will be an immediate favorite in any home, school, or library collection.

Ages 4 – 8

G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2026 | ISBN 978-0593700174

Carrie Finison writes poetry, stories, and books for kids, including the picture books Dozens of Doughnuts; Pigs Dig a Road; Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It); Lulu & Zoey: A Sister Story; and Hurry, Little Tortoise, Time for School! She lives outside Boston with her husband, their son, their daughter, and two cats who allow her to work in their attic office. Visit her at carriefinison.com.

Brianne Farley is the author of Worm Makes a Sandwich, Secret Tree Fort and Ike’s Incredible Ink. She also illustrated Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison, the Charlotte the Scientist books by Camille Andros, and No Buddy Like a Book by Allan Wolf. Brianne studied creative writing and art at Macalester College, then received her MFA in illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She lives in Michigan. You can visit Brianne at BrianneFarley.com and follow her @BrianneHFarley.

You’ll also enjoy Dozens of Doughnuts, the first book in this series, which also stars LouAnn and her friends! Read my review here!

National Blueberry Pancakes Day Activity