Monday, August 2, 2010

Ella Takes the Cake by Carmelo D'Amico

Ella Takes the Cake by Carmela D'Amico, illustrated by Steve D'Amico

Rating: 5 stars--maybe 6!

This is the third book in a wonderful series by a Seattle-based husband and wife team about a shy little elephant named Ella.  If you're looking for a gift for a three- or four-year old little girl, get these!  Just buy the whole set and you'll provide them with beautiful pictures, sweet stories, and important lessons. 

This particular Ella book, Ella Takes the Cake, is the favorite of one of Lorelei's little friends, Ella--the girl, not the elephant.  Ella the girl has good taste!  In this book, it's summer vacation and Ella really wants to help out in her mother's bakery.  Her mother keeps her from helping as much as she wants to--the oven is too hot, the knife is too sharp--but finally the delivery elephant forgets to pick up the most important cake, and Ella offers to deliver it by herself.

Here are things that make this book SO RIGHT:
  • The to-be-delivered cake is gorgeous and enormous, yet Ella is willing to give it a shot.  (Go, Ella!  Dream big!)
  • Her mother says yes--she trusts her little daughter with a big task.  (We should all do this!  Let's start a trend to actually have enough faith in our kids to let them do Big Things, even if it scares us a little.)
  • Ella takes some detours, yes, but they are sweet and responsible ones, like taking a stack of books to the library for an older elephant.  (The day after we read this book, I found myself offering to return library books for our neighbor, who was going on vacation.)
  • She catches up with the delivery man, who offers to "take the cake from here" to its final destination, but Ella sweetly says, "I'd like to finish what I started."  (Oh, to have that sentence come out of every child's mouth!)
  • The recipient of the cake is impressed, and Ella returns home, very proud of herself.  And her mother is almost as proud of her.  (There's something about accomplishing a goal that seemed unreachable at some point--that's what I like about distance running.)
  • The last line: "That's what Ella likes to do best...be a good helper."  (I realize this might be sickeningly sweet to some, but I much prefer something like this than a witty-sarcastic line.  There will be enough of those in the teenage years...)
These are quality stories.  But I'm not done yet--just a few more sentences!  The artwork in them is just beautiful.  This one is by far my favorite because the illustrations begin even before the title page--the front and back inner cover is a map of the mysterious Elephant Islands.  Lorelei likes to trace the route that Ella takes to the lighthouse, then back again. (That's what she's doing in the picture.)

This is a really terrific series--not one to miss!

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