Bread And Jam For Frances

Bread and Jam for Frances is one installment in a series of children’s books about an independent (read: stubborn) young badger named Frances. (I myself was a stubborn young badger growing up.) I can still recite from memory the rhyme she invented while skipping rope to declare her devotion to jam.

Jam on biscuits, jam on toast, 
Jam is the thing that I like most.
Jam is sticky, jam is sweet, 
Jam is tasty, jam’s a treat –
Raspberry, strawberry, gooseberry, I’m very
FOND... OF... JAM!

The gentle lesson of the book is that it’s good to try new things because you can get sick of even your greatest pleasures eventually. After her parents obligingly serve her yet another meal of bread and jam, she composes two dejected stanzas:

What I am
Is tired of jam.

You can also read about Frances in A Bargain For Frances, in which her crafty friend tricks her into a bad deal involving a plastic tea set (featuring Frances carrying around a giant stuffed snake, which I’m rather fond of).