Rude Cakes

PreS-Gr 1—In this amusing and downright bizarre tale, readers learn about cakes whose dispositions aren't nearly as sweet as their flavoring. One bratty confection, who never waits his turn and refuses to obey his parents, finally gets his comeuppance when a cyclops reaches into his bedroom window one night and eagerly scoops him up. Slyly subverting expectations, the author explains that cyclops don't eat cakes—they enjoy wearing them as hats. But cyclops are far more considerate, and the one-eyed creature quickly returns the dessert to his home, resulting in a kinder, gentler cake. Children learning to say, "Please" and "Thank you" will delight in the over-the-top rude behavior here, such as the cake exploding with anger at a tiny marshmallow and chocolate muffin. The use of dynamic, large fonts for emphasis, hilarious dialogue conveyed through speech bubbles, and the exaggerated expressions and responses of characters add further to the zany flavor of this story. Digitally created, with pencil and ink, the cartoonlike illustrations match the tone of the text, quirk for quirk. The strange creations depicted here have an adorably grotesque feel: the cakes are multilayered concoctions perched precariously on tiny peglike legs, while the monsters are toothy, big-eyed, hairy ovals. Watkins has whipped up a truly surreal story, crammed with hilarious details and gently laced with an important lesson; pair this one with Steve Antony's Please Mr. Panda (Scholastic, 2015) for a fun primer on manners.