Today is my stop on the blog tour for Where Has All The Cake Gone? published by Macmillan Children’s Books
I am sharing our review and a Q&A with illustrator Aysha Awwad
As well as hosting a FACT or FIB challenge for Andrew and Aysha:
“Penguins can swim but cannot fly”
What do you think?!
Scroll down to the end of the post to find out!
Here at Edspire HQ
We are in the midst of birthday season
Caught up in a whirlwind of presents
Wrapping, party games, feasts
And ALL the cake!
Edie and I have been taking great joy
From reading and re reading
The delight that is
WHERE HAS ALL THE CAKE GONE?
This is a brilliant book
About a little boy with a wild and wonderful imagination
Who loves cake
Almost as much as Edie does!
Andrew Sanders and Aysha Awwad
Have created a riot of a book
Which is a thrill to read aloud
And has caused much merriment
Amongst all my children
This is the almost unbelievable story
Of a missing cake
LOTS of hungry penguins
And a crumb covered little boy
Who swears he is telling the truth
This reminds me a lot of Michael Rosen’s
Chocolate Cake
And the pair would make a perfect book match
This is the story of Albert
Who in spite of evidence to the contrary
Insists that he did not eat the missing cake
He tells a tall tale of an imaginary adventure
Involving a chaotic cast of crazy penguins
Yes penguins
Who cause all kinds of mischief and mishaps
Shown in glorious technicolour
Through the pages of this book
Everytime Edie and I read Albert’s story
We notice something new
Among the pesky parade of penguins
Albert’s incredible imagination
Leads to his tall tale growing taller and taller
As we hear about a trip on a train
In a jar of marmalade
International jet setting
Ski lifts and snow fights
And building snowmen with kangaroos!
This book is so funny and so silly
And so perfect
Little ones will listen to this over and over again
Poring over the wonderful illustrations
That add even more humour to the story
My big kids suggested that this would be
A wonderful way to inspire children
To tell their own tall tales
Make their own imaginative excuses
For a stolen cake scenario
An adaptation of that old favourite
The dog ate my homework!
This will be added to our selection box
Of cake and confectionary stories
That we love to read during
The magical madness that is birthday season
When the house is always full
Of goodies and cheer and sensational stories
Q & A with Aysha Awwad
Where Has All the Cake Gone? Is a madcap adventure involving a young boy’s attempt to explain why the cake is missing. What’s the most outlandish fib you’ve ever told?
As a child I would try to convince my mum that I would turn green if I ate broccoli. Needless to say, she didn’t believe me!
Andy mentioned – in his guest post with The Book Activist – that you’ve added lots of humour within the illustrations, e.g. when the penguins accidentally take wrong turns and end up in New York/Hawaii/Cairo/The Moon. At what point in the illustrating process, do you plan these details?
Firstly, I will rough out the basic elements we want to show in the illustration. At this point I will work out where I can add in any humorous details. Then, once I have finished drawing all the roughs I will go back through them and see if there are any other final touches I can include to add comedy value.
How many drafts of the penguin character did you draw before the final (very cute) version?
I drew four sketches of the penguin character and once I had decided on the version I was happy with, I experimented and adapted that character to create lots of different variations for all the other penguins.
I can’t believe that this is your first book! How did you get into illustrating?
Thank you! I’ve always loved to draw for as long as I can remember. Growing up I absolutely loved all of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons and would watch them while I drew Fred Flintstone and Judy Jetson to stick on my bedroom wall. I ended up going down a slightly different path and studying graphic design but eventually found that I was at my happiest when drawing. So, I took a short course on illustrating children’s books and worked on putting a portfolio together. From there I signed with my lovely agent Emily and starting working on Where Has All the Cake Gone? With the wonderful team at MCB.
Which illustrators have inspired you and / or did you love growing up?
My favourite book growing up was Hairy McClairy (an absolute classic). I also adored all of Janet Ahlberg’s books. Another favourite illustrator of mine was Laurence Hutchins. I would spend ages staring at all the details he has in his illustrations which is something I love to try and include in my own artwork.
FACT or FIB challenge
“Penguins can swim but cannot fly”
Both Andy and Aysha correctly guessed this to be FACT! Although Andy pointed out that it would be possible if they gained their pilot’s license.