One day, eight animal friends decide to make a cake. They each have a different ingredient called for in the recipe, and together, they will make a marvelous creation. Raton provides the azucar and Gato brings the mantequilla – oh, yeah, that’s right, I forgot to tell you. This book teaches you some words in Spanish while you’re reading.
On every page, you find the Spanish word for an animal and a food side by side with the English equivalent. While reading the story to my children this afternoon, I had the chance to brush off my rusty Spanish pronunciation skills tell them how Perro (the dog) brought the huevo (egg) and Pajaro (the bird) provided the harina (flour).
With a pinch of sal (salt) from Caballo (the horse) and a touch of vainilla (vanilla) from Rana (the frog) the cake is nearly ready to go. For flavor, we need cerezas (cherries) from Vaca (the cow) she can really balance that basket on her head! Cerdo (the pig) brings pacanas (pecans) and that completes the ingredient list. Now we’re ready to bake!
The eight friends mix everything together and now they can bake their pastel (cake). After preheating the horno (oven), they put the cake inside. It’s going to be wonderful.
Forty minutes and several Spanish words later, the cake is ready to come out, but there’s a fight! Perro and Gato both want to take the pastel out of the horno! As will always happen when animals argue in the kitchen, the cake fell on the floor, upside down. Disaster!
But level-headed Vaca comes up with the solution. She pulls out her stylish purse and asks Pajaro to make a trip to the store. He’s only gone a short time, and when he returns, he brings . . pina! Placing pineapple rings on the “ruined” cake, the friends create a pineapple upside-down cake and their treat is saved.
A fun and improbable story of animals baking in the kitchen, my children and I enjoyed learning the Spanish words and spending time together looking at the adorable pictures. Plus, the recipe is included in the back, but I think you could throw it on the floor yourself without having to locate an animal to do it for you.
(This book was published in 2002 by Penguin Putnam and was illustrated by Lee Chapman.)
I include my apologies to my Spanish-speaking readers – I was unable to get the correct accent marks on the Spanish words to translate into the software.
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