Crêpes by Suzette by Monica Wellington

Suzette operates a street cart selling crêpes all over Paris. She begins by making the batter, then shopping for fruit, and then begins her travels from the Left Bank to the Eiffel Tower and places in between. 

She has devoted customers who come for their favorites: the postman gets a raspberry crêpe (although the illustration says strawberry - that would have irked me as a child), people relaxing in the park pick their favorite fillings, a crying child gets banana, and so on (the reader gets very hungry reading this book).

Scenes near the Luxembourg Gardens

At first, I did not care for the juxtaposition of cartoonish Suzette and attractive background scenes of Paris, introduced by a map that lays out her route across Paris. But soon I began to appreciate the art, which consists of “mixed-media collages made up of color copies of photos taken by the author on numerous trips to Paris; ephemera (what a great word) such as postcards, tickets, and wrappers collected by the author colored with markers and colored pencils, cut out with scissors, and pasted onto paper painted with acrylics.”

Looking across the Seine to Notre-Dame

The book includes a recipe for crêpes, a glossary of the French words used in the book, and descriptions of the pictures that inspire the scenes in the book. This would be a lovely gift for a child going to Paris for the first time or simply to introduce the concept of armchair travel - which is what Paris in July is all about!

Title: Crêpes by Suzette
Author: Monica Wellington
Publication: Dutton Children’s Books, hardcover, 2004
Genre: Picture Book
Source: Library

Reading Crêpes by Suzette contributed to this challenge:

• Paris in July 2026

Illustrations copyright to the author and publisher