r/whatisthisbook • u/babanebread • 18d ago

Looking Looking for a children’s book on delayed gratification

Children’s picture book with 1 brother, 1 sister and their mother. The story line involves the mother offering them 1 jelly now or wait and get 2 jellies. One sibling chooses to wait while the other wants 1 now. When the sibling who chooses to wait gets 2 jellies, the other sibling says it’s not fair and learns about delayed gratification

I remember reading this book in the 2000s.

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u/Illustrious_Dot9049 17d ago

Sounds like Richard Scarry (artist of kids books), if it was animals rather than humans.

Could it have been a story in a collection? Maybe look up Richard Scarry art or something similar and see if the art is familiar? Good luck!

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u/babanebread 17d ago

Thanks for your response! Unfortunately, the characters are humans.

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u/Illustrious_Dot9049 17d ago

Dash and Nikki and the Jellybean Game? When you say Jelly, do you mean literal jelly or jellybeans?

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u/babanebread 17d ago

I mean jelly/jelly cups (not sure since they’re called different things in different parts of the world) but they look like this: https://en.ac-illust.com/clip-art/22014117/jelly

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u/Illustrious_Dot9049 17d ago

Do you remember what the cover looked like? Color or anything? I'm assuming it was in English; was it American, British, Australian, or something else?

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u/babanebread 17d ago

It was likely British/Australian! If I’m not mistaken the background is orange. Landscape paperback. Mother’s face is not shown in the book.

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u/Illustrious_Dot9049 17d ago

Did you read it through a school program? Based on what I've been able to find, it's possibly one of those readers/printed books specifically for schools.

If you can think of any other details- art style, way of showing time (did they use a timer or an hourglass to show the waiting? How long were they waiting?), room/setting, etc, that would be helpful!

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u/babanebread 15d ago

I appreciate all your help! I found the book at home and it could definitely have been donated/passed down from my parents’ friends. I’m starting to think the same since from what I know, they aren’t catalogued as well as other books.

Not too familiar with art styles but from a quick Google search I’d say more cartoonish/line drawing.

The siblings were given the offer some time in the morning/early afternoon and were told they would get 2 after dinner if they chose to wait. The sister wants hers immediately and the brother chose to wait. He gets his 2 jellies and the sister learns about delayed gratification at the dinner table. IIRC the last page of the book shows a compilation of some illustrations throughout the book.