Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake

by Michael Kaplan, Stephane Jorisch (Illustrator)

Overview

Meet Betty Bunny, a loveable handful nobunny can resist.
 
From author Michael B. Kaplan, creator of Disney’s T.V. show Dog with a Blog, comes the debut picture book of the Betty Bunny series. It's a story about patience—seen through the eyes of a precocious preschooler.
 
Betty Bunny is the youngest in her family of rabbits and she’s just discovering the important things in life, like chocolate cake. She declares, “I am going to marry chocolate cake” and takes a piece to school with her in her pocket. Mom values healthy eating and tells Betty Bunny she needs patience when it comes to dessert. But Betty Bunny doesn’t want patience, she wants chocolate cake! In this funny tribute to chocolate lovers (and picky eaters), Betty Bunny’s charming perspective on patience will be recognizable to anyone with a preschooler in their life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101647776
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	05/05/2011
Series:	Betty Bunny
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

A native of Wayland, Massachusetts, Michael Kaplan wrote plays and musicals throughout high school and at Princeton University, where he attended college. Upon graduation he moved to New York where a number of his plays received productions and staged readings, primarily at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he is a member. For the past twenty-two years, he has lived in Los Angeles, working as a television writer and producer on a total of twelve different prime time shows for ABC, NBC, FOX, and UPN. His career as a comedy writer has included stints as a writer and Supervising Producer on two of television's most respected comedies, Roseanne and Frasier. For his work on the latter, he received an Emmy award, as a member of the producing staff, for best comedy series. He co-created and Executive Produced I'm In the Band for Disney XD. His new show, Dog With a Blog will be premiering on Disney Channel in the fall of 2012. He is the author of Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake and Betty Bunny Wants Everything. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.Stephane Jorisch has illustrated numerous picture books, including New Year at the Pier, Granddad's Fishing Buddy, The Real Story of Stone Soup, and Jabberwocky, for which he won the prestigious Governor General's Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Caldecott. Mr. Jorisch lives with his wife and three children in Montreal, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

The devil's food cake is in the details of this blithe yet emotionally honest book about the eponymous rabbit, a "handful" of a child who becomes deeply enamored of chocolate cake after her first bite. Much of the book's humor depends upon Betty's misunderstandings—especially the meanings of "handful" ("Betty Bunny knew that her mother and father loved her, and so being a handful must be very, very good") and patience. When Betty's mother insists she eat her healthy dinner before her cake, Betty throws a tantrum before agreeing to be more patient tomorrow. (She quickly reveals she doesn't quite have the concept down when she stealthily slips a piece of cake into her pocket, where it turns into a "brown goopy mess.") Readers will delight in feeling older and wiser than Betty, and both Jorisch (New Year at the Pier) and debut talent Kaplan demonstrate a sure handle on feisty modern family dynamics, whether in Betty's dreamy gaze as she declares, "I am going to marry chocolate cake," or her older brother's surly retort: "Whatever.... But you're going to have really weird-looking kids." Ages 3–5. (May)

Publishers Weekly

* “A spunky bunny girl, whimsical watercolor illustrations and a laugh-out-loud plot are the key ingredients for this sweet and satisfying treat of a story.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The illustrations in this book are created as beautiful watercolors and ink drawings that vividly support the storyline and enhance the humor of the text. This is a fun book for young readers."—Children's Literature 

"Readers will delight in feeling older and wiser than Betty, and both Jorisch (New Year at the Pier) and debut talent Kaplan demonstrate a sure handle on feisty modern family dynamics."—Publishers Weekly 

From the Publisher

Oh, how Betty Bunny comes to love the taste of chocolate cake! She can think of nothing else—certainly not the fact that she will need to eat a healthy dinner before she can have a piece or that a piece of cake may not fare well during the school day tucked in her pocket. Katherine Kellgren’s elegant voice may be a bit out of place amid the rough give-and-take of the bunny family, but she uses it to heighten the drama and individualize the characters. As Betty, she sounds imperious and prone to tantrums; as Betty’s older brother, mocking; and as Betty’s mother, authoritative. Kellgren draws out important phrases: “I can’t belie-e-e-ve you put cake in your pocket.” A.R. 2014 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2013 - AudioFile