Thunder Cake is a heart warming story about Patrica Polacco's Babushka, who helps her overcome her fear of thunderstorms. She achieves this by having Patricia go to different places across the farm to collect ingredients for her famous Thunder Cake, which can only be made during a thunderstorm. Babushka must have tomatoes, strawberries, milk, and eggs which all call for Patricia to be brave and gather these things, all while working against the clock before the storm arrives. Just as all grandmothers, Babushka instills confidence in her granddaughter by proving she is quite brave after all. In the classroom, you could use this book to introduce your class to weather maps. By bringing in different maps from different parts of the world, you can teach students what different symbols mean and encourage them to inquire about the weather in your area, in our country, and around the world. This book is leveled in the AR system at a 3.5.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

 

                This is a charming traditional Russian Christmas story.  Dawn Casey’s retelling of the Babushka story is truly a wonderful piece of storytelling.  The Babushka woman is similar to the American Santa Claus.  She travels the world giving children a present.  In many ways, the story is similar to that of Santa Claus. 

 

                Casey’s retelling is poetic without being strictly poetry.  It is childlike, but there is wonderful humor there.  In 15 pages, Babushka comes across as far more than an old woman obsessed with house work.  There is kindness and wisdom there.  The addition of a cat is brilliant.

 

                The combination of Casey’s story telling with Hall’s artwork reminds one of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, but with a cute facto toned down just a little and the light factor turned up.  The book gives off a feeling of warmth.  Actually, it’s like Rankin/Bass crossed with a Russian lacquer box.  Like the writing, there are wonderful details in the illustration – from the three wise men, to the sleigh, to the townsfolk.

 

                It’s a wonderful book.

Genre: Family / Manners / Toys

Year Published: 1990

Year Read: 2010

 

Lately, I have taken interest in Patricia Polacco’s books and I have recently stumbled upon a new book by her called “Babushka’s Doll.” “Babushka’s Doll” is a Russian tale by Patricia Polacco and it is about how a naughty girl named Natasha learns the hard way about what it truly means to be impatient after her grandmother, Babushka leaves her doll with Natasha and the doll comes alive and starts bossing Natasha around! “Babushka’s Doll” is definitely one of the most creative and surprising books ever created that children will definitely get into!

Oh my! Patricia Polacco certainly knows how to bring about a lesson in life in an extremely interesting way! Patricia Polacco has done an excellent job at both illustrating and writing this book about the importance of being patient with other people (especially when the other person has to do work!) I love the way that Patricia Polacco writes this story in an extremely creative way as she takes a cautionary tale about the importance of being patient and turns it into a fairy tale inspired tale that involves a doll coming to life and teaching an impatient girl a lesson she will never forget and I just loved the surreal approach about a doll coming to life since it made this story extremely interesting to read, especially since I imagined that Babushka’s doll would make anyone who has possession of it just go crazy (the doll definitely drove me crazy because it whined so much!) I also love the way that Patricia Polacco teaches children about the importance of being patient and I think that many children will relate to Natasha’s woes in dealing with an extremely impatient doll as impatient children will see that dealing with another person who is much more impatient than that child can open their eyes to the importance of being patient. Another aspect of the story that I really enjoyed in this book are the illustrations by Patricia Polacco herself! The illustrations are just to die for as they beautiful and realistic, especially of the image of Babushka herself as her face portrays many wrinkles, but it also details how wise she is as she seems to secretly know about the doll’s motives before she gives it to Natasha. The image of Natasha on the other hand, is that she is shown as a young girl with brown hair that is wrapped up in a bun attached to a large white ribbon and she is seen wearing a red rose dotted blue dress and to top it all off, she has a scowl on her face which makes her look like a child who is used to getting everything she wants!

Overall, “Babushka’s Doll” is truly a great tale for children who enjoy reading Russian tales and who want to learn about the consequences of being impatient in the form of a doll! This book is definitely one of Patricia Polacco’s finest works in tales that have a folkloric theme! I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book, unless children might get annoyed at Babushka’s doll!

 

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

1/30/13 ** Another great book to use with older kids while discussing theme.

Intriguing! This story of an old woman eternally searching for the Christ Child whom she passed up the opportunity to see at the nativity is new to me, and apparently subject to debate. The cover claims it is a "Russian folktale" but Russian reviewers are unfamiliar with it and suggest it is Polish or perhaps made up by Mikolaycak. I'm more inclined to believe the doubters as the story didn't seem to quite work for me, but that may be a flaw in the retelling.

A woman called Babushka (although she appears youngish in the early panels) who is famous for her housekeeping smells cinnamon one night and steps outside to see the Three Wise Men on their way to find baby Jesus. They invite her to come with them. Naturally she doesn't know what they're talking about so she declines and goes to bed. The next morning she is overcome with an obsessive desire to follow them and goes running off down the road. Naturally she doesn't and ends up wandering the earth for all eternity, dispensing the occasional treat to a tot to make up for never giving a gift to the Christ Child.

Sounds like a big downer to me, although the tone of the book is more explanatory. Is Babushka being punished for prioritizing housekeeping over religion? That seems kind of unfair since she had no way of knowing what was going on. If not, why does she live forever? It's like some elements of the Martha story got mixed in with the Wandering Jew. Odd story, pretty illustrations.