Mac & Cheese: The Origin Story by Michael L. Benner, illustrated by Alison Hawkins (Orchard Books, 32 pages, ages 4-8). Mac is a friendly noodle who gets along with other forms of pasta but longs for a real friend. Cheese is the king of Quesoland, beloved by his subjects, but also a lacking in the friendship department. When Mac heads off on an adventure and winds up in Quesoland, the two instantly click. Cheese loves Mac’s jokes, and Mac enjoys Cheese’s tour of Quesoland. Before long, they’ve become inseparable: two friends meant to be together.

I’ve seen quite a few comparisons of this to John Jory’s The Bad Seed series, and that seems apt. Both are kind of light on plot, but make up for it with fun, colorful illustrations, cartoon bubble dialog, and lots of food puns and jokes. The eye-catching cover is sure to draw lots of readers in quickly. Look for book 2, Milk and Cookies, coming next year.

How (Not) to Make a Jelly Sandwich by Ross Burach (Scholastic, 40 pages, ages 4-8). The narrator promises to explain how to make a jelly sandwich in five easy steps. The first step is to get two slices of bread, so she goes to the grocery store, buys the components of a duck disguise, heads to the pond in said disguise, then gets a woman to hand her two of the slices of bread that she’s brought to feed the ducks. The rest of the steps are similar, turning simple tasks into complicated Rube Goldberg-like procedures. As the girl is finally ready to take her first bite, all the people and animals that helped her show up to collect their jelly sandwiches, and she’s off again. Includes a couple of pages with some other suggestions to complete the steps and inviting readers to come up with more.

The crazy ideas and cartoon illustrations will have kids rolling on the floor with laughter. Not only that, but it could also serve as a fun introduction to writing procedural text or the concept of brainstorming.