Bunny Cakes

by Rosemary Wells, Rosemary Wells (Illustrator)

Overview

It's Grandma's birthday, and Max wants to make her an icky, worm-infested cake. But Ruby says, "No, Max. We are going to make Grandma an angel surprise cake, with raspberry-fluff icing." Will Max let his bossy older sister keep him out of the kitchen? Or will they both become bunnies who bake?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593694374
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/05/2024
Series:	Max and Ruby Series
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 7.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Rosemary Wells (rosemarywells.com) is the author of 120 books for children, including more than 40 about the beloved bunnies, Max and Ruby, who star in their own television show on Nick, Jr. She travels all over the country as a tireless advocate for literacy. Wells was born in New Jersey to a playwright father and ballet dancer mother who encouraged her artistic bent. She worked as an art director and designer before illustrating her first book. She is the mother of two grown daughters, Victoria and Marguerite, and grandmother to four girls.

Editorial Reviews

The two bunnies are preparing for Grandma's birthday. Max makes and earthworm birthday cake with mud. Ruby begins work on an angel surprise cake with raspberry-fluff icing. Max wants to help his sister, but, somehow, always manages to knock things off the table. Wells's ink-and-watercolor pictures of the siblings are both hilarious and tender. Every younger sib or small member of the family will recognize Max's determination, mischief, and love.

Sesame Street Parents

It's kitchen chaos as Wells's beloved Max and Ruby become bunnies who bake. Max and Ruby each have grand plans for Grandma's birthday cake. Max envisions an earthworm cake with caterpillar frosting and "Red-Hot Marshmallow Squirters" on top. Ruby, however, insists on an "angel surprise cake with raspberry-fluff icing." Max tries his best to help his bossy older sister but, as always, winds up making a mess. After spilling the milk or breaking the eggs, Max is repeatedly dispatched to the store with Ruby's neatly printed list of ingredients, all the while trying to figure out how to convey his own request to the grocer. Wells's (My Very First Mother Goose) ink-and-watercolor world is cheery as ever here, replete with a cozy, '50s-esque kitchen and friendly neighborhood market. She accurately captures the prickliness of sibling exchanges ("There's a yellow line on the floor, Max," says Ruby when Max returns with a replacement bottle of milk. "You can't step over that line"). Hapless Max maintains a happy-go-lucky demeanor in any situation, a shining example of patience and perseverance. And when it comes to the interplay between pared-down text and eventful illustrations, Wells, quite simply, takes the cake. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

It's kitchen chaos as Wells's beloved Max and Ruby become bunnies who bake. Max and Ruby each have grand plans for Grandma's birthday cake. Max envisions an earthworm cake with caterpillar frosting and "Red-Hot Marshmallow Squirters" on top. Ruby, however, insists on an "angel surprise cake with raspberry-fluff icing." Max tries his best to help his bossy older sister but, as always, winds up making a mess. After spilling the milk or breaking the eggs, Max is repeatedly dispatched to the store with Ruby's neatly printed list of ingredients, all the while trying to figure out how to convey his own request to the grocer. Wells's (My Very First Mother Goose) ink-and-watercolor world is cheery as ever here, replete with a cozy, '50s-esque kitchen and friendly neighborhood market. She accurately captures the prickliness of sibling exchanges ("There's a yellow line on the floor, Max," says Ruby when Max returns with a replacement bottle of milk. "You can't step over that line"). Hapless Max maintains a happy-go-lucky demeanor in any situation, a shining example of patience and perseverance. And when it comes to the interplay between pared-down text and eventful illstrations, Wells, quite simply, takes the cake.

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

PreS-Gr 1--Undaunted Max and bossy Ruby, rabbit siblings, make the perfect cakes for grandmother's birthday. A confectionary delight, with layers of laughter. (Jan.)

School Library Journal

The famous Max and his sister, Ruby, are the stars of this self-proclaimed brand-name production—A Max & Ruby Picture Book—but there is no formula here—only extreme originality.

To celebrate their grandmother's birthday, Max is constructing an earthworm cake while bossy Ruby declares that a real cake will be made. She begins whipping one up. Max, in the meantime, breaks the eggs, the first in a series of mishaps that lends repetition—the soul of story hours—to the plot. List from Ruby in hand, he is sent to the store each time he destroys an item, and attempts to add (in a preschooler's version of handwriting) his own sought-after ingredient, Red-Hot Marshmallow Squirters. Each time, the grocer understandably cannot read Max's writing; each time Max returns home, he finds that Ruby is attempting to keep accidents to a minimum by keeping him away from her work. At one point, she posts a drawing in which Max appears inside a red circle with a line through it. Wells's ingenuity never flags, not in the brief text nor in the illustrations. Her close-ups of destroyed ingredients and her many ways of showing two children in the same setting suggest she knows her subject well. Ruby's sloping iced cake is a gem, and Max's is grandly icky and visibly worm-infested: "Grandma was so thrilled, she didn't know which cake to eat first."

Kirkus Reviews