Whopper Cake

by Karma Wilson Narrated by Ed Sala

Overview

Best-selling author Karma Wilson keeps things fun for young listeners with rhyming word play and healthy doses of gentle humor. Today is Grandma's birthday and Grandpa is going to make her a cake-a big one! But no stove is going to accommodate his grand vision. So using his pick-up truck and generous helpings of all the ingredients, he sets out to make a birthday cake like no one's ever seen before. Grandma didn't want him to make a fuss, but Grandpa just couldn't resist.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Wilson (Bear Snores On) and Hillenbrand (Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash!) cook up a sweet and jaunty picture book. Their protagonist, Granddad, falls in the bigger-is-better camp, at least when it comes to his wife's birthday celebration. Despite her protestations ("Don't make a fuss, you hear?"), Granddad has an itching to whip up one heck of a confection in her honor. With two canine sous chefs, Granddad gets to super-sizing a chocolate cake recipe that ends up baking in the pick-up truck bed rather than in the tiny conventional oven. Kids will delight in Wilson's bouncy rhyming stanzas flavored with down-home vernacular and the slapdash slinging and flinging of eggs (86), flour (10 bags) and cocoa (24 cups) by Granddad and pups in playfully energetic mixed-media spreads. No one can argue with Granddad's defense to his astonished birthday gal: "Your heart's so big, you deserve a whopper cake!" A chocolate cake recipe (of realistic proportions), with directions in the couple's dialect, is included. Ages 4-8. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2
Wilson's goofy rhymes and enthusiasm for things big and beautiful were previously experienced through the fancy footwork of a hippopotamus in Hilda Must Be Dancing (S & S, 2004). Here, the author successfully applies the same elements to describe how Grandpa concocts a "whopper chocolate cake" for Grandma's birthday. The scope of his love requires that he use a pickup truck for a bowl, an oar to stir the ingredients, and an army of neighbors bearing shovels to spread the icing. With a technique mirroring Jackson Pollock's approach to a drip painting, the crew creates a mouthwatering masterpiece. Rendered in ink and egg tempera, Hillenbrand's illustrations spill off the spreads. The artwork is further enlivened by the texture offered by the canvas surface and the depth created by the contrasting of full-color foreground paintings with sepia background sketches. Full-bodied figures decked out in '70s paisleys and prints, a flower-powered VW driven by the matriarch, and high-energy compositions make this a surefire crowd pleaser. The programming possibilities are numerous; this title will easily mix with books on birthdays, grandparents, tall tales, or cooking, to name a few. Chocolate cake aficionados should be sure to follow the appended recipe, not the one invented by Grandpa!
—Wendy LukehartCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Written in verse, Wilson's original, folksy tall tale is given an industrial-strength boost from Hillenbrand's big, exuberant artwork. It's Grandma's birthday, and Grandpa (who looks remarkably like Eric Carle) wants to bake a cake. Not just any cake-a whopper cake. When a table-sized bowl proves too small for the enormous amounts of sugar and flour, Grandpa transfers the mixture to the bed of his pick-up truck, stirs in more ingredients with an oar, and then drives to town with his trusted canine assistants. In one visual slip, the ice cream Grandpa gets for the top of the cake-now the size of a small house-is missing from the pictures. Opening with birthday balloons and splattered chocolate batter, Hillenbrand combines candy-colored egg tempura paintings with sepia-toned line drawings in jaunty double-page spreads. Judiciously sprinkled with patterns, the compositions are full but never busy. The language of the recipe for a junior-sized version of the dessert is a bit corny, but after engaging with the tale's good-humored action, kids will be watering at the mouth. (Picture book. 5-9)

OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile

When Grandma's birthday arrives, Grandpa decides he’ll "traumatize" the kitchen with his baking skills and create an even bigger cake than he’s made in previous years. Despite admonitions from his wife, Grandpa proceeds. How can four eggs turn into 86 or one cup cocoa become 24 boxes or a pan expand into his truck's flatbed? Grandpa’s adapting the recipe! Ed Sala narrates with a steady pace, emphasizing both the rhyme and the exaggeration of this original tall tale. He gives personality to Grandpa and Grandma and relishes the “whopperness” of everything. The recording includes a recipe for a cake, not a whopper, but large enough for 16. A.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169272703
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	05/09/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	Up to 4 Years

Videos