Clever Cakes

Are you smart enough to escape from a hungry grizzly bear? Could you trick a grumpy king out of a giant golden belly-button?

It pays to be able to think on your feet, especially if you’re about to be eaten alive or cheated out of a valuable prize! So it’s just as well that Masha and Peggy are two clever kids, each with a cunning plan …

This wonderful book is part of Barrington Stoke's Little Gems series - short, first chapter books with bright illustrations that are perfect for emerging readers (5-8). It has a dyslexia friendly layout that makes it clear and accessible to a large range of readers. Clever Cakes is split into two very funny stories.

Masha's Granny warns her not to venture too far into the woods, but when Masha gets caught up in a game of hide and seek she ends up kidnapped by a bear! Masha will need to combine her baking skills and quick thinking to outmatch her captor and return home to Granny. 

King Jabber is bored of all his usual entertainments, so he devises a competition that will be sure to amuse him: whoever tells him the biggest lie will win his Great Golden Belly-button ("Use? You don't use a Great Golden Belly-button. It just is.") The competition isn't as exciting as King Jabber had hoped, until a clever girl called Peggy arrives. 

Both of these stories really made us laugh! They were just right for my five-year-old to read aloud to me, providing some great variety from her usual phonics-based schools books. My three-year-old enjoyed listening in too, and they both loved the colourful pictures and quick-thinking, clever protagonists.

Clever Cakes is written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Ashley King

Thank you Barrington Stoke for providing us with a copy to review