Book Review: The Grumpy Frumpy Croissant
I love finding new books to explore with Gray- reading is something that has brought great joy and fun to my life, and I’m so happy that he enjoys books too! While the concepts of this book may be a bit advanced for him at 2, he loved seeing the funny and animated illustrations. Glad to have this book on our shelf to enjoy again and again in the years to come!
Here’s the author’s own words about her writing of the book:
A behind-the-scenes look on how my book came about
By Mona K, author of The Grumpy Frumpy Croissant
It was a Sunday afternoon in December 2019. My son and I had a ritual to stop by our favorite coffee shop before his tennis class to grab drinks and our most beloved croissant. My son got chocolate milk and I made my regular order. We both devour our croissants. I love to bake them from time to time, however the recipe does call for a lot of love and patience. As we were getting ready to sit down, I accidently spilled some coffee over my son’s croissant. A big volcano of anger erupted, and he squeezed the croissant really hard. Poor croissant lost a few pounds instantly. I enjoy meditating and try to share some techniques here and there with my son. I realized he was extremely upset, so I suggested that he leave the croissant alone and take some long deep breaths. He did that a few times and then took a big sip of the milk. He suddenly felt calm. In the meantime, Mr. Croissant seemed to have gained some of his plumpness back. That spur of the moment was Grumpy Frumpy Croissants’ birthday. My son also loves toast and scones with a lot of red jelly. I thought Croissant needed friends and so Toast and Scone were invited to the party along with Milk. I wrote the story that same day and narrated it to my son the next morning. He absolutely fell in love with the characters. In February 2020, I started looking for illustrators for the book. I interviewed and did test runs with at least eight illustrators before selecting Korey Scott. He was able to bring my story to life just as I would if I were an artist. In March, covid-19 knocked us all on our heels. The illustrations took four long months and finally I published the book in November. I presented the book to my son on his seventh birthday in December 2020. His reaction was priceless, and he was an instant celebrity in school the next day.
Life By Kristen 