April & Mae and the Book Club Cake

The Monday Book

By:Megan Dowd Lambert / Illustrated by:Briana Dengoue

You are a good reader.

Its Monday, and April and Mae aren’t prepared for book club. To save time, April reads the book aloud while Mae bakes a cake for their friends. When they forget to add flour, some quick thinking helps the girls salvage the dessert. Sometimes a mistake can turn into something better than the original plan!

With imagination and humor, Every Day with April and Mae brings all there is to know and love about friendship to life in a way kids can both relate to and learn from making this a perfect fit for young readers ready to step up from picture books.

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Every Day with April & Mae

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Author & Illustrator

Megan Dowd Lambert, author

Megan Dowd Lambertis the author ofA Kid of Their Own,A Crow of His Own,Real Sisters Pretend, andReading Picture Books with Children. Her experiences as a white mother of seven children in a blended, multiracial, queer, adoptive family inform her work as an author, reviewer, and educator. A former children’s literature instructor at Simmons University, Megan reviews and writes forKirkusandHorn Book; is a consultant with EmbraceRace, a community focused on race and kids; and serves on the curation team of Our Shelves, a subscription box service that features racially diverse, LGBTQ+, and feminist characters and families.

Read more about Megan.

Briana Dengoue, illustrator

Briana Dengoueis a Philadelphia-born-and-based illustrator and graphic designer. She holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and is a firm believer in the fact that representation matters. She is always hoping that her work reaches someone who may look like her and see the world like her.

Read more about Briana.

Awards & Honors

• Coming soon!

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

In this installment of a new series that follows two best friends throughout a week, the titular duo attend a weekly book club after they bake an unusual cake for the group.

April, who is African American, a dog lover, and a fast reader, helps Mae, who is Asian, a cat lover, and a slow reader, to finish this weeks book by reading aloud while Mae adds ingredients to the cake batter. Aprils expressive reading of the story distracts Mae, who laughs, then cries. After April calms Mae with a hug, Mae pours the batter into the pan and tells April to put it in the oven while she cleans up. Only later do they see the bag of flour on the counter and realize Mae left the all-important ingredient out. Even so, the cake smells good, though it looks like a bowl, with a sunken hole in the middle. Together the friends cover the hole with some cream and berries, salvaging a very tasty treat for their successful book club meeting. With short sentences and repetitive vocabulary, this sweet early reader is augmented with digital illustrations that provide some foreshadowing clues to the narrative. April and Mae are strong friends who problem-solve effectively.

A simple, charming tale of friends who work through concerns together.

Children’s Literature

April and Mae are best friends. So are their pets. Every day, they do an activity together. On Mondays, they go to book club where there are always delicious, fancy cakes. This time it’s Mae’s turn to bring the cake, but she hasn’t finished reading the book yet. April reads to Mae, but her funny voices and moving read-aloud mean Mae misses an ingredient in her cake. In this upbeat tale of friendship in action, April and Mae work together to get ready for their book club meeting. They giggle and have fun as April dramatically reads, but when Mae realizes she’s left an important ingredient out of her cake, she blames April for distracting her. The girls work together to figure out how to salvage the treat for their book club meeting and realize that when things don’t go as planned, they can still end up with a delicious outcome. A lively celebration of friendship and compromise perfect for readers advancing beyond picture books.

Details

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-58089-887-4

Paperback
ISBN:978-1-62354-411-9

E-book
ISBN: 978-1-63289-756-5

Ages: 5-8
Page count: 48
6 x 9

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