As the fourth of five children, I was very thankful for my younger brother, Frankie. At last, there was SOMEONE less informed about the world than I!
Between us kids, there was a lot of competition – to get parental attention at the crowded dinner table, for the best spot on the couch to watch Bugs Bunny, or to get the most quarters (for every A) at report card time.
And of course, to be the funniest. (I remember my belted-out rendition of There’s No Business Like Show Business a la Ethel Merman got a big laugh. Oh, I milked it!)
I was lucky to grow up in a house with awesome siblings and books. My dad once bought me Alice in Wonderland, (illustrations by John Tenniel. The Duchess really freaked me out!) It felt like a big deal in our on-a-budget household. Still have it! Always will!
I remember proudly memorizing poems from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (how old am I? Even I wonder sometimes.) And I loved our weekly trips to the library.
One sweet memory is of Frankie and me poring over our copy of The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper. We carefully studied every page, laughing at the facial expressions on, well, everything. The milk bottles looking askance. The happy apples who evidently did not know they were on their way to being consumed. The monkey in a fez. All the engines – Snooty Shiny New Engine. Macho Freight Engine. And the Dingy Old Engine who looked more than ready for retirement. Or at least a long nap.
I probably explained to Frankie that clowns always ride the rails.
Who knows how long we ran around the house afterwards, yelling, “I think I can! I think I can!”
That’s one thing I LOVE about picture books – how they can be interpreted and reinterpreted and read (even if only visually) over and over.
As an author, it’s wonderful to imagine kids and siblings interacting with Tiny Spoon vs. Little Fork with that level of joy and enthusiasm. Maybe acting out the parts and quoting from the book – Cannonball! Wheeee!
The idea for this book sprang to life when my son (now 19) was eating solids for the first time, a parenting moment which, like many parenting moments, is pretty hysterical. Trying to get that tiny spoon into that little mouth, only to be met with last-minute head swivels equaled epic failure. Mashed peas, apricots, and/or bananas everywhere.
Felt like a story was in there. So I imagined the ordeal from the spoon’s point of view. First drafts featured a Bugs Bunny-inspired, wisecracking spoon. (“I’m going in, see? Make with the Vroom, Vroom!”)
After many revisions, Tiny Spoon became a sweet and loyal helper. I added a foil – Little Fork, confident and impulsive. And a goofy, loveable sidekick -Bubby Wabbit!
After paring the story down to its all-dialogue essence, my editor and I discovered the perfect comic-book style illustrators – Dan & Jason. And so Tiny Spoon vs. Little Fork was born, an action-packed story of an epic battle between two utensils who step up to the plate and whisk it all. (Couldn’t resist!)
I recently read Tiny Spoon vs. Little Fork to my four-year-old neighbor and her baby brother. When the baby hurls our unsuspecting heroes across the kitchen, the girl laughed and said, “Brother does that!”
The second time Baby grabs Tiny Spoon & Little Fork, the dad asked the kids, “What do you think the Baby’s going to do now?” The little girl proudly yelled, “Throw them!” (The younger brother was making choo choo noises. But in a good way.)
There’s a lot of dynamic language in this book, i.e., SPROING! and BONK! and THUNK! Dan & Jason are excellent at comic-book action words, making them both fun to look at and fun to say. I know if Frankie and I had this book when we were kids, we would have been sproing-ing all over the place.
At the end (spoiler alert!), when Tiny Spoon and Little Fork get thrown into the dishwasher, the mom said, ‘It’s like a carwash for the spoon and the fork.’ Which made her daughter burst out laughing. I loved how the mom riffed on the book- and seeing how much reading aloud is a living experience. I like to think that now, whenever that family loads the dishwasher, the little girl might say, “A car wash for fork and spoon!” Maybe little brother will even be in on the joke – one day.
That girl reminds me of myself as a child – experiencing reading as a way to play and, possibly, lording it over her little brother now and then.
I set out to write a funny book for kids.
I told myself “I think I can.” And I think I did.
**BONUS fun: downloadable double-sided story-time activity Tiny Spoon vs. Little Fork placemat – can be used in the classroom, at home, or at a bookstore event!
Constance Lombardo is the author/illustrator of four books, including the three books in the Mr. Puffball series and the picture book, Everybody Says Meow, which was a 2020 Anna Dewdney Read Together Award Honor Book.