Mr. Cookie Baker [Hardcover]

Monica Wellington (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2006 | Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

As sweet and satisfying as holiday baking, here is a beautiful update of Monica Wellington's Mr. Cookie Baker. In this book, youngsters can follow the process of measuring, mixing, baking, decorating, and eating cookies. With six new full-color pages, a handsome new jacket, educational tie-ins, and more recipes, this is the perfect supplement to early math units on sequencing, sorting, measuring, and telling time. The simple, straightforward behind-the-scenes view of a bakery makes it a splendid addition to Monica Wellington's other nonfiction for the very young, such as Zinnia's Flower Garden. Yummy in any season!

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-- For many youngsters, cookies come only in packages or boxes. This book explains the process of baking them. It shows a baker's day, from setting out raw ingredients to closing the door once everything is sold. For each double-paged spread, one brief sentence describes the process: "He mixes the cookie dough" stands for measuring, mixing, creaming, beating, and stirring. Without a doubt, this is a happy baker. He smiles as he reads his recipe; while removing baking sheets full of browned cookies from the oven, he licks his lips. The illustrations, done in gouache and colored pencils, perfectly match the informational and emotional levels in this book; the uncluttered shapes resemble those produced by cookie cutters. The man's features, as well as those of his happy customers, could have been drawn with icing. Warm clear corals, oranges, and yellows predominate. Ingredients, utensils, decorated cookies, even money and glasses, pitchers and cartons of milk dance on the decorative borders and cheerful endpapers. This is an ideal book to use with toddlers and preschoolers. Beware! It's guaranteed to cause a demand for cookies. Of course, a detailed recipe follows the story. --Nancy Seiner, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Early in the day, Mr. Baker measures the ingredients, mixes the dough, cuts it into shapes, bakes his cookies, ices them, and decorates them with colored sugars. Mrs. Baker sells them to the crowds of children in their shop. After a long day, Mr. Baker closes the shop and eats the last cookie. Done in gouache and colored pencil, the artwork features clean lines and flat colors that are as cheery as the cookies' sugar sprinkles. The new edition of this old favorite features an additional double-page spread with one new line within the story, another minor change to the text, and added pages before and after the story that have more spacious design. Three new recipes appear along with the one previously appended. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (September 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525477632
• ISBN-13: 978-0525477631
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pizza at Sally's Delivers!, September 29, 2007

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mr. Cookie Baker (Hardcover)

Some writer/illustrators can take a good idea and turn it into something a little special. "Pizza at Sally's" might have been a rather formulaic, linear account of pizza making, but Monica Wellington treats us to a superior pizza book. The winning ingredients include a unique artistic style, a clear, engaging story, and a tasty concluding payoff for either the rapacious or the reluctant reader.

The illustrations, "colored copies of photos, labels, and other ephemera" pasted on gouache-prepared paper have a toy-like quality, as if your Lego decals leapt from signs and trains onto the pages.. Coupled the informal font, the look is a relaxed photo realism. The combination is much warmer than most of the computer-generated images I've seen. Photos of Sally's (she's the pizza maker) tomatoes complement shiny drawings of patterned green leaves, and tall background buildings with luminescent colored windowpanes hint at the urban setting. "Sally the pizza maker grows tomatoes in her community garden in the city." This is an exciting setting for non-city kids who have never seen a rooftop garden. Wallington also skillfully mixes farm scenes with their destination: The neighborhood stores where Sally buys her pizza ingredients. There's a beautiful, atmospheric picture of the cheese shop with giant company labels hanging from the wall, and Wallington adds an unexpected lower panel that shows us the cows grazing many miles from the cheese shop interior. It's a bold montage that works extremely well.

At 11:00 AM, Sally--with her ubiquitous cat smiling up at her--begins making pizza! It's homemade of course, "Cut, chop, stir, and simmer. There are good smells in the air. Sally makes her tomato sauce." Yeast, oil, salt, and flour start the pizza dough, and we see a mixture of foods and measuring devices on one 2-page spread. At this point, I began to ponder a very serious question: Does Sally belong to the "through the dough" school of pizza-making, or whether she disdains such dramatics? (These two methods are hotly debated wherever pizza is taken seriously.) Culinary merits aside, I was thrilled to see that Sally twirls the dough--"Whoosh"--up in the air. Finally, "everything is ready to put together." As she layers the ingredients (the cat with its paws on the counter), Wellington uses some artistic license to bend health code regulations), hungry kids wait with great anticipation.

And the verdict? The pizza certainly looks delicious, and you can almost smell it as Sally slides it into the fiery oven. However, Sally's customers are the best judges, and the youngsters grab slices and close their eyes in pizza ecstasy. When the shop closes at 9pm, the chalkboard says "Arrivederci," and Sally and her little feline helper relax and enjoy a slice together. A truly kid-pleasing book might include Sally's pizza recipe as an après-story treat, and, as with the entire book, Ms. Wellington does not disappoint. There's much to savor in this sensational book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Cookie Baker- our all time favorite!, February 27, 2003

By 

Anda P. Broom "shopper" (atlanta, ga United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Cookie Baker: 9 (Hardcover)

... "Mr cookie Baker" is a MUST read! the boys love to pretend play as we "roll out the cookie dough" and "add colored sprinkles". They identify the children in mr Cookie Baker's shop with names of their school friends. "Mmmm...what a delicious smell!" is one of their favorite lines. ...
An easy read - but, oh, so much to it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Cookie Baker, May 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mr. Cookie Baker (Picture Puffins) (Paperback)

My nephews loved this book! We read it multiple times each time they came to visit. I often used it in my kindergarten classroom as well. It provides many learning opportunities. The pictures offer a lot of discussion for language development and the book is a great lead in to a cooking activity. Now it is one of my two year old son's favorite books. He talks about it when we cook together, play with play dough, and play in the play kitchen.