Hot off the Press! How to Bake a Book by Ellen Burfoot

I'M GOING TO BAKE A BOOK!
I'LL BREAK SOME IDEAS INTO A CUP.
I'LL BEAT THEM, WHISK THEM, MIX THEM UP.

I'LL WEIGH OUT MY WORDS. JUST ENOUGH.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT ONES CAN BE TOUGH.

In her new How to Bake a Book (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2014) Ellen Burfoot stirs up a light and fluffy description of the process of writing a story book, a sweet concoction to introduce the idea of authorship, the combination of elements that make a story that rises to expectations.

Other things are needed--putting ideas together in the best language, adding rising action into the plot, excitement, and appealing characters, providing sounds and words that offer their own sound effects (gurgle, squelch, splash), all with the right punctuation, spelling, and capital letters make it go down smoothly and leave a good taste behind for the reader.

Burfoot's analogy of writing to baking suggests that a lot of elements go into a work of fiction, and offers young readers or students setting out on an introduction to a unit on the elements of fiction with bouncy rhymes and light-handed mixed media illustrations that will be sweet to the taste of primary readers. Says Kirkus Reviews, "As the trend of picture books praising the codex continues, few will match the light tone, originality and quirkiness of this one."

Read this one with Barbara Bottner's equally delicious story about stories, Miss Brooks' Story Nook (where tales are told and ogres are welcome) for a slightly more sophisticated but delightful lesson on what it takes to tell a good story (See my review here.)