I Really Want the Cake

About this book

Everyone knows the feeling.

First you smell it, then you see it...CAKE!
It's on the table standing there, you cannot help but stop and stare.
The icing looks like such a treat, it smells so chocolatey and sweet!
And before long...YOU REALLY WANT THE CAKE.

This deliciously funny story chronicles the battle of one little girl who tries, with all her might, to resist her greatest temptation: cake. Readers join our spunky, mischievous, and charming heroine and her devoted side-kick pup as the temptation mounts, and a little lick becomes a bite. With bouncing rhyming text from Simon Philip and bold, expressive illustrations from Lucia Gaggiotti, this story playfully tackles all-important themes of impulse control, truth-telling, and making amends (or at least trying to), with humor, authenticity, and heart. Including a recipe at the end of the story, I Really Want the Cake offers readers a universally relatable and tasty tale.

Reviews

Praise for I Really Want the Cake:

"This diva of cake snatching commands every page, with her proclamations of entitlement (rendered in sprawling handwritten type), her extensive repertoire of operatic expressions, and a hairstyle that seems to have a life of its own-especially after she's laid waste to the kitchen. In more ways than one, she really does take the cake." -- Publishers Weekly

"A child and a dog fight a losing battle to resist a tempting-but forbidden-chocolate cake. Each step in this hilarious struggle is narrated by the child in a three-line rhyme that culminates in an increasingly emotional refrain (in fun type to match) as the battle for self-control escalates... This humorous struggle for self-control also models apology and restitution." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Cake lust wins out over parental command, as it all too often does. Faced with a huge, luscious, forbidden chocolate cake, a child struggles to stay away but ultimately caves as one lick becomes a feeding frenzy that leaves only crumbs. Well . . . how hard can it be to make another? Rhyming verse accompanies a winning young gourmand with wild black hair and a big personality, and Gaggiotti proves a dab hand at depicting fantastically smeary disaster areas around the cake plate and in the kitchen. Nonetheless, the extravagantly decorated jumble she dishes up at the end has a stylish flair that hints at a bright future as a pastry chef." -- Booklist