Genre 1, Picture Books: Eight Animals Bake a Cake

(amazon.com)

Bibliographic Information

Middleton Elya, Susan.2002. EIGHT ANIMALS BAKE A CAKE. Ill. by Lee Chapman. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780399234682

Plot Summer and Critical Analysis:
Eight animals, each bringing an ingredient, get together to bake a cake. As they gather at one house, the reader learns a little Spanish on the way. While mostly in English, there are Spanish words throughout of both ingredients and animals names, for instance the cat named Gato. As Gato, Raton, Perro, Pajaro, Rana, Caballo, Vaca, and Cerdo arrive to mix their ingredients and prepare for a feast, they begin to fight over who gets to take the cake out of the oven. When the excitement ends with the cake on the floor, the friends believe their cake is ruined. Luckily, with some clever thinking they salvage their cake and enjoy their treat together. Yes, the five second rule applies to this story.

As the text is both in Spanish and English, there are aids for the reader, such as the borders of each page offering translations. As learning a second language is encouraged to learn with a primary language, this books offers an opportunity to increase literacy and recognition for not one, but for two languages. With a simple sentence structure, this book is more advanced than The House in the Night, but as each pair of sentences rhyme, children will not find this story difficult to follow and will probably find it flows due to they rhyming that is achieved by having full sentences on each page.

Visually, this would attract children's attention as not only are the animals personified, but the colors are very bright and exaggerated, similarly to the paintings of many Mexican artists, for instance Frida Kahlo.



When it comes to the visual elements, someone's background can influence how they create and how they see art. Chapman's illustrations did remind me of Mexican folk art and Spanish artists, such as Frida's color scheme and the shapes and comical gestures seen by Spanish painter Joan Miro.



Chapman uses bold, warm colors as he illustrates the fun, and energetic round animals who so eagerly, and earnestly try to bake a cake. Children will find the animals personalities humorous, as they are led from one to another page by page. Not only is the text always moving forward, but visually there is an animal or action on nearly every page leaning towards the next page causing the reader to prematurely wonder what is to come. The cultural influence in Eight Animals Bake a Cake is present in both the given translations as well as the illustrations, which can provide readers with more insight than simply learning how these eight animals baked a cake.

Awards and Reviews
Nominated for the 2003-2004 Georgia Book's Award in Picture Storybook Category

Publisher's Weekly:
Having made a bilingual foray to the market in Eight Animals on the Town, Raton (Mouse), Gato (Cat) and friends now tackle the culinary arts and add 33 Spanish vocabulary words in Eight Animals Bake a Cake by Susan Middleton Elya, illus. by Lee Chapman. Each animal brings one ingredient to the cake-baking session (recipe appears at the end): "Dog brings the egg, one huevo to beat. `Hurry up,' Perro says. `I want to eat.' " Chapman's paintings glow with south-of-the-border colors and a Mexican folk-art spirit; whimsically patterned frames contain translation equations ("Dog = Perro," "Egg = Huevo" and so on). Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

School Library Journal:
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Following the same format as in Eight Animals on the Town (Putnam, 2000), with Spanish words carefully integrated into the text, endearing animals each bring an ingredient for the cake they hope to bake. "Dog brings the egg, one huevo to beat. `Hurry up,' Perro says. `I want to eat.'" Each neatly rhymed couplet is accompanied by a framed and bordered illustration that extends the humor of the text. Perro prances merrily down the path, balancing his huevo jauntily on his nose, to the amazement of some watching chickens. The English translations of the Spanish words appear in the borders so there is no interruption or confusion in the story line. The paintings are a richly colored combination of cartoon and Mexican folk art that perfectly captures the animals' eager anticipation. Most libraries will agree with these delightful characters when they say, "M s, por favor."-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Connections:
Public libraries especially have the need of a diverse collection and can have programs for Spanish speakers or have programs for English and Spanish speakers together, with similar books to this one, that incorporates both languages. One could either have a program based on the languages in this book or based on cooking, or even art. With a diverse topic and multiple elements, schools, libraries, and parents could expand on different aspects of this book.

Similar Books:
Eight Animals Play Ball (Susan Middleton Elya): As another Eight Animals book, children who enjoyed Eight Animals Bake a Cake will most likely read this book willingly.

Say Hola to Spanish (Susan Middleton Elya): Encourages learning Spanish