Horse and Zebra Bake a Cake

by Whitney Sanderson, Angelika Scudamore (Illustrator)

Overview

Horse and Zebra are best friends, but they couldn’t be more different! While Horse is steady and sensible, Zebra is zany and creative. But what they have in common is that they will always look out for each other, and they’re always ready to help another animal in need.

Horse and Zebra are ready to start their new business, making daily oatcake deliveries with their Cake Wagon. At first they have lots of buyers, but soon the other animals grow tired of Horse’s traditional family recipe. Zebra tries her hoof at baking instead, but her cakes are a little too creative. Can Horse and Zebra figure out how to compromise to make their buyers happy?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631637124
Publisher:	North Star Editions
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Series:	Horse and Zebra
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Whitney Sanderson is the author of many books for young readers, including books in the Horse Diaries and Unicorns of the Secret Stable series. She lives with her family in Massachusetts. Her website is www.whitneysanderson.com.

Editorial Reviews

"A simple story with compromise baked in." —Kirkus Reviews

"A good general purchase to expand any beginning reader collection." —School Library Journal

"As with other books in this delightful series, readers will come away having been entertained while also learning a few valuable lessons about themselves and their friends. Told in a charming manner, this short book, and others in the series, are a fun read that also offers food for thought." —Children's Literature

“Pertinent questions and an oatcake recipe in the back will keep your little readers busy after they're done with the story." —Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

07/01/2023

K-Gr 2—Horse runs a farm stand where she sells her baked oatcakes. When she sells out at the farm stand, her friend Zebra suggests that they sell them in town next time. Zebra will even do the work pulling the cakes in their wagon. Once again they're very popular, but after a few weeks the customers are disappointed that there is no variety. Zebra is ready to try something new, but Horse says it's a family recipe that they can't change. Zebra creatively launches into the recipe, adding bananas and chocolate chips. But then she goes a bit too far and adds too many new ingredients, including eggplant and spinach. The friends finally compromise and add rainbow sprinkles, because one special ingredient is perfect. The cake wagon is back in business! Along with helpful illustrations on every other page, the words are one or two syllables in length, and the basic, predictable sentence structure will assist the earliest of readers. VERDICT A good general purchase to expand any beginning reader collection.—Linda Annable

School Library Journal

2023-05-24
A pair of bakers work together on a special oatcake recipe.

Although the title mentions only one cake, anthropomorphic, bipedal Horse and Zebra make many oatcakes in this story. At first it seems the text may take a page from “The Little Red Hen,” since Horse does all the work baking oatcakes to sell while Zebra sleeps until noon. But when the oatcakes start to sell like hotcakes, Zebra steps up to pitch in. The friends’ baking success is short-lived, however, since the animal community soon tires of plain oatcakes. Horse resists Zebra’s plan to jazz up the recipe: “ ‘Whoa!’ said Horse. ‘The old Clydesdale Family Oatcake Recipe has never changed before. We can’t change it now!’ ” When Zebra tries to make some changes anyway, the complex recipe she attempts is a flop, with animal customers rejecting it outright. Finally Horse comes around to the idea of adding just one special ingredient to the recipe, and the pair has a baked-goods success on their hands once more thanks to the compromise they reach. Although the storyline is a bit light and the cartoon illustrations are largely redundant, doing little to expand upon the text, a discussion guide and recipe help to round out this pleasant enough offering.

A simple story with compromise baked in. (Early reader. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews