What would you do if you were a talented pastry chef who
bought a bakery, only to discover the deceased and cranky former owner is
haunting the place? Three bakers have bought and sold the shop because they can’t
deal with the lemon-pucker mouth of Miss Cora Lee Merriweather shouting, “Get
out of my kitchen!”
Along comes Annie Washington, a cruise-ship pastry chef who
can bake through a typhoon or tsunami. She won’t budge an inch, even as Cora
Lee destroys the kitchen.
Here is a short blurb that describes the kitchen fight:
“Cora Lee let out a shriek that cracked the windowpane. Annie
kept on rolling out her dough. Cora Lee rose up through the counter into the
middle of the puff pastry, making a most horrible face. Annie slapped a slab of
butter on top of the pastry and folded it up, ghost and all.”
Annie tells Cora Lee it’s her kitchen now, but Cora has a
request. “Make me a cake,” Cora Lee says, “make me a cake so rich and sweet, it
will fill me up and bring tears to my eyes. A cake like one I might have baked,
but that no one ever made for me.”
Annie goes on a delicious journey, baking hundreds of
desserts to please Cora Lee so she can rest in peace.
This is a children’s picture book with fantasy elements. It
would be appropriate for ages 4-8. The illustrations are brightly colored and
have an abstract quality to them. This book made my children and
I very hungry for dessert. The bonus is a recipe in back, and every child will
beg their parent or teacher to make it!
Here is a wave file for the verbal book talk:
Nice job. If you are booktalking to children, of course, you would leave off that last paragraph. In your cite, I believe there is no need for the comma after the first author.
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