How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A.

About Marjorie Priceman

In the age of Mapquest and global-positioning systems, I still love the Rand McNally road atlas. The whole, crazy country is contained between its two covers. The strange place names and geographical quirks, the weirdly shaped states–as well as the orderly square ones. The fact that you can plot a trip from here to anywhere and get there eventually.

Picture books, I think, can be a thrifty form of travel. Without leaving the house you can cross a continent, venture out to sea (or under it), go back in time or into space. How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A. was my attempt to write a sequel to How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World that didn't just repeat the same formula in a new locale with a different dessert.

This time, I began with a recipe. This time, the baker has all the ingredients–but is lacking the bowl, spoons, and other cooking tools to complete the cherry pie. The result is part road trip, part tutorial–a "scenic" jaunt around the U.S.A., if not exactly the shortest route.

I harkened back to the family vacations of my youth. In the backseat of the Chevy Malibu, counting cows or playing tic-tac-toe, stopping at all the roadside attractions. Scenic overlooks! Snack bars! Petting Zoos! Souvenirs!

We visited historic sites, museums and monuments, planetariums and movie studios, national parks and amusement parks. We went to the seashore and drove up at least one snow-topped mountain in summer. From the car windows, we saw farms, forests, big cities and small towns, oil refineries, skyscrapers, and bridges.

But we also toured the symbols of American industry–Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Corning Glass factory. We volunteered for quality control at the Hershey Chocolate works. We panned for "gold" at Knott's Berry Farm.

The book attempts to tell kids where stuff comes from (aside from Wal-Mart, or China) and how our natural resources are turned into everything we use in our daily lives. How a plastic spoon or toy starts out as crude oil from deep underground, or the raw materials for glass are found in the sand on a beach. There is a very subtle message on recycling (see if you can find it), but that is not the purpose of this book. Of course, one hopes that as kids learn that real trees, mountains, and earth are used up to make common household items, that will help them understand the importance of conservation.

Although its purpose is to inform, I've tried to include enough oddball humor and detours along the road to prevent it from being just another "educational" vacation (we've all had those). In the end, the task at hand–collecting the materials to make the tools to bake the cherry pie–is also an excuse to travel this amazing, captivating country, an expansive and surprising America that no 32-page book can ever hope to capture or contain.

Teacher's Guide

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Join our young baker (and her little dog!) as they travel the entire United States— from New Hampshire to Hawaii, from Alaska to Texas—in search of the coal, cotton, clay, and granite they need to create all their baking tools.

In a companion to her bestselling How to Make an Apple Pie and See theWorld, two-time Caldecott Honor artist Marjorie Priceman takes us on a round-the-U.S.A. journey by riverboat, taxi, train, and plane in a culinary adventure—and a playful celebration of America’s natural resources. Includes a map of the U.S.A.—and a recipe for cherry pie, of course!

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

Marjorie Priceman is the acclaimed author and illustrator of dozens of books for children, including the
bestselling How to Make an Apple Pie and See theWorld. She also wrote and illustrated Emeline at the Circus, an ALA–ALSC Notable Children’s Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and Hot Air: The (Mostly) True
Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride, winner of a Caldecott Honor. She won a previous Caldecott Honor for her illustrations in Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin, written by Lloyd Moss. Marjorie Priceman makes her home in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

TEACHING IDEAS

Math
Have students document the modes of transportation used by the narrator of How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A.
Then have them research the average miles per hour and price per mile of each mode of transportation, and record their
findings on a chart.

LanguageArts
Everyone knows how to make something! Have students use a chart to organize their steps in a process. Afterwards, have
volunteers demonstrate their project for the class so that you all learn something new!


Music
Lead a class sing-along to the tune “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

If you make a cherry pie, you’ll need supplies
If you make a cherry pie, you’ll need supplies
If you make a cherry pie, you might travel far and wide
If you make a cherry pie, you’ll need supplies!

DISCUSSION AND WRITING

• What do bakers need to get started with almost any project?
• What will you need to make steel? Where will you find it?
• How will you get the cotton for pot holders?
• Where can you be in four states all at once?What will you find nearby that you need to make cherry pie?
• What will you find inWashington? Why isWashington unique?
• Hawaii has plenty of something that you need to make glass. What is it? Would you like to visit Hawaii?
• What does a baker use a piece of granite for?Where can you find it?
• Why should you go to Texas?What will you see?
• What will you see if you fly over South Dakota?What would you see if you flew over your own state?
• After you get home how much work is there still to do?Which project do you think would be most difficult?Why?
• If the Cook Shop is closed, what might you do?
• Which illustration is your favorite? Why do you think the author used the colors she did?

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

Ask the class: Do you know how to make a cherry pie?What do you know how to make? How do you think you can see the
U.S.A. by making a pie? Where would you most like to visit in the United States?

Download a PDF of the Teacher's Guide