Michael Kaplan (1)

"A is for chocolate cake, B is for chocolate cake, C is for chocolate cake..."

Betty Bunny is a pretty typical kindergartener who does not like to try new things. She decides she hates chocolate cake... that is until she tries it and can't stop thinking about it. This leads to hilarious interactions with her family (she declares she will marry chocolate cake, which prompts her older brother Bill to muse that she will have very funny-looking children) and throws a full-out tantrum when she show more can't have more. Her mother places a piece just for her on a plate in the refrigerator so she will know it is there, but she is worried she will miss the cake when she goes to school. So she puts it in her pocket, with predictable results. The brown goopy mess she finds there at the end of the day prompts another meltdown and a lesson about patience. I loved it!

Curriculum: I read this to kindergarten as part of a "healthy bodies" unit, as a book plot point is that Betty Bunny needs to eat a healthy dinner before she can have cake. A good discussion springboard for kindergarten students about healthy foods, and when it is okay to have a sugary treat. Also a GREAT discussion on how hard it is to be patient sometimes.

Kaplan, M., Jorisch, S. & Kellgren, K. (2011). Betty Bunny loves chocolate cake. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. show less

Oh my goodness this was a great read-aloud. Was asked at the last minute to read to my 3rd grade library group and just grabbed this off the Easter Book display. This book is not Easter related at all, although it does have a Bunny as the main character. So many funny lines, especially from her brother Bill. I had a hard time keeping a strait face while reading it and my 3rd graders thought it was hilarious. This book will be going into my own private collection. Loved it!!!

I liked this book for many reasons. First, when I read this book, I loved the message it shared. I thought it was a delightful book for children of any age. It is a book that can be shared around Easter, but there are more books written by the same author but they share different messages. This book starts with Betty Bunny telling her family that she loves Easter and she will be the Easter Bunny when she grows up. Every year on Easter they do an Easter egg hunt. It is not until she is older show more that she realizes her older brothers and older sisters have been helping her find eggs. One of her brothers says to her, “We always help you. It’s why you find so many eggs.” She was very upset and could not believe what they were telling her. The big idea of the story is then shared when her parents tell her,”…It doesn’t matter how many eggs she finds. Any egg she finds by herself will mean so much more than eggs that someone else gives her.” Hard- work, independence and satisfaction of accomplishment all helped Betty Bunny realize something. The author writes, “She had three eggs in her basket. That was all she could find. But her mother was right. Those three eggs she found by herself meant more to her than any eggs she had ever had.” She learned that it felt better when she did things on her own rather than having them done for her. I really liked the fact that this story can show children how much better it feels when they accomplish things on their own. The other stories in the series of Betty Bunny books all have their own message as well. I also liked the illustrations in this book because they were simple but each character had a different outfit, the pictures were not overwhelming and did not take away from the message of the book. The watercolor fit perfectly with the story. Overall I really loved this book and I hope to read the others in the series one day. show less

Overall I think that this was a good story, I do think that it might send the wrong message and show children that it might be alright to be sneaky with their parents. I think a better message would have been to be grateful for what they have and what they are given because some do not even have toys.