The Cake Thief by Sally O. Lee

There are some books that are simply fun to read. This is one of them. There are some books that are a joy to simply look at. "The Cake Thief" is one of them. Actually, I was unable to find anything what-so-ever to dislike about this particular work. It has just about everything that a good children’s book should have.

This is a story about a strange little kid, Clarence, who lived in a house with a purple door, in the mountains near a town. Simply put, Clarence was a cake thief. He would slip from his home; go to the village and steal cakes, all kinds of cakes, the prettier the better. Now I do not want to add any spoilers here, so I will not go into detail how this one ends. Suffice to say that Clarence, the strange little boy who loved stealing cakes, learns that making the cakes himself and sharing those cakes is much more rewarding that stealing those made by others.

The story line in this small book is easy to follow and the text matches the art work perfectly. There are no periods of slowing down and the story line keeps moving right along. I love lines such as:

“But Clarence did not know how to bake a cake or make frosting or turn on the oven. So he went home and began to fret. He fretted in the bedroom. He fretted in the living room. He fretted in the dinning room, and finally he fretted in the kitchen.”

Lines such as this sort of roll off the tongue and if read correctly, can get the little ones to giggling quite quickly.

Now as to the art work. Ms. Lee certainly has her fair share of talent and then some. The art is lively, it is extremely colorful and it is calming and mellow. It is the type of art that a small child can look at and say to themselves, “I can do that!” And what is even more important, they, the child, will actually try to reproduce it. This is good. On the other hand, the work here by Ms Lee is quite well done. The composition and color blends actually take great skill. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself with some pastels, oils or chalk or even water colors. It is not easy! This type of painting, that which can motivate the child yet is a challenge to an adult, is a wonderful skill. Wish I had it.

Recommend this one highly. I do hope we see more of this author’s work in the future.

Considerations :::
We could not find an AR (Accelerated Reading) number for this book. We suggest you assume the book is to be read to children.