Picture Book #2

Title:  Who Made This Cake?
Author:  Chihiro Nakagawa
Illustrator:  Junji Koyose
Genre:  Fiction
Subgenre:  Early Reader Modern Fantasy
Themes:  Construction, workers building, cake ingredients, baking, teamwork, birthdays, celebrating with family
Primary and Secondary Characters: lots of miniature workers, mom, dad, and boy
Awards:   2008 Horn Book Fanfare
Date of Publication: 2008
Publishing Company:  Front Street (Boyds Mills Press)

Summary:
A mother is needing to order a birthday cake, and quick!  She calls the little workers and they take on the task.  All the little workers then put on their hard hats and get to work.  They get their reinforcements - a bulldozer and several other construction trucks.  Once their trucks are in place, they begin adding all the cake ingredients into a giant mixing bowl that is about ten times as big as they are.  They use all the construction trucks to their advantage and use them to mix all the ingredients together.  Once the cake batter is mixed, it is poured into the pan and is baked in a giant oven.  The cake is then decorated with all the workers using their construction vehicles and is topped with delicious strawberries!  The little workers are finished with their task and the cake is finalized with a topper that reads, "Happy Birthday."  The mom then carries out the cake from the kitchen (as if she made the cake) and celebrates her sons birthday.

How it will be used in the classroom:
This is a very easy read as it only has a few words on each page.  This is a great read for a kindergartener, especially if it is their birthday!  I think this would be a fun book to read to my students (if I taught Pre-K or K) on their birthdays.  It would also be a great book for children to start to read on their own within the classroom.