Recipe For A Story by Ella Burfoot
| Recipe For A Story by Ella Burfoot | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Page
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| Summary: Is writing a story like baking a cake? You'd be surprised! Inventive and fun. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: January 2015 |
| Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0230753037 | |
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I’m sure you love reading, but have you ever wanted to write a book? Would you even know where to start? In this delightful, whimsical look at the topic, we learn that writing a story could be like baking a cake, with lots of ingredients mixed together in just the right way for a wonderful creation.
There are some wonderful metaphors in this book, such as the words jumbled in the mixing bowl, and characters being cut out of dough using cookie cutters. It’s a really inventive way to tell a story, and of course it’s a book in a book. Although we don’t find out what the little girl’s story is, we see all the component parts so it’s fun to chat together about what the characters will do. There’s a definite fairy tale theme to it, so it will be familiar to most little ones.
Told in rhyme this is a nice book to narrate aloud, though on occasion the word order seems a bit erratic, as if to force a rhyme. The design I liked though I did miss a few parts on the first read through until I spotted that some of the illustrations also formed part of the story. It’s a bit confusing because some do (like the words in the mixing bowl) but others don’t (like the words in the titles of the cookery books) so it’s not as if you’re supposed to simply read every word on the page. If you’re reading together it may be wise to give it the once over first to make sure you’ve got it right and then you can read aloud confident that you’ve not missed a vital part of the story.
The illustrations are lovely with so much detail and funny quirks that will delight old and young alike, such as the good and bad elements of the story being sprinkled in in the way you would season with salt and pepper. Some of the cookery technique is slightly questionable – should we really be kneeling in cakes as we cook them? – but the theme works well and the final product does indeed look delicious.
I’d like to thank the publishers for supplying this book.
If, even after reading this, your kids prefer proper, food baking to story baking, Make and Do: Bake by Kathleen King has some recipes worth a try.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Recipe For A Story by Ella Burfoot at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Recipe For A Story by Ella Burfoot at Amazon.com.
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