Reviews

Clever Cakes by Michael Rosen

gracegreenlaw's review

4.0

Published by Barrington Stoke this is an easy to read, dyslexia friendly book. This book is perfect for more reluctant readers who benefit from 'easy win' reads where the content is matched to their age rather than their reading ability, thus avoiding the situation of upper KS2 children reading books designed for much younger readers. The stories in Clever Cakes are aimed at children aged between 5 and 8 years old. Clever Cakes is about a girl called Masha who is captured by a bear and has to use some cakes and her wit to escape from it. The Great Golden Belly-Button is a funny story about a bored King and his advisor who devise a game to make the King laugh with the prize being a special golden belly-button.

mat_tobin's review

4.0

Part of the Little Gems series from Barrington Stoke, Clever Cakes contains two different traditional tale stories each reimagined by Rosen and beautifully illustrated in full colour throughout by Ashley King. The first story, in the style of Catherine Storr's [b:Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf|150806|Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf|Catherine Storr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172219311l/150806._SY75_.jpg|145553] sees young Masha outwit a hungry bear to avoid being eaten and the second story, The Great Golden Belly Button sees another young girl outwit a king.

The stories themselves are fun to read but it's Barrington Stoke's dyslexia-friendly presentation that makes this especially worthy. Cream-coloured pages and a special font with broad gaps between each line make this far more accessible for all readers whilst remaining a 'real' book.

charlottesomewhere's review

funny lighthearted fast-paced

S and I really enjoyed reading these stories and talking about how clever both main characters are to trick their way out of their situations. We found Clever Cakes where the bear keeps trying to sneak his hand in to steal the cakes particularly funny, and we enjoyed trying to think about the biggest lies we could tell to win a golden belly button (as well as wondering what on earth we would do if we won a golden belly button). It also gave us a chance to talk about telling lies and how the King encouraging people to lie led to bad things happening. I loved these two stories and I think they make great stories to read with younger children (S is 9 now and enjoyed them very much). I also loved the illustrations in this book, there is so much detail in them, and the bear's facial expressions made us laugh as much as the story!