Ella Takes the Cake by Carmela and Steven D'Amico

Series. Arthur A. Levine Books (Sept. 2005) Library

Ella may be little, but she still wants to be a big help. Only, her mother says she's to small to slice the cakes, too young to bake the cookies... how's to do ANYTHING important? Ella finally gets the chance to make a big cake delivery, but with a runaway cart and that troublemaker Belinda Blue on the loose, can she get the job done? Ella better hang on to her good luck hat -- it looks like she's in for a bumpy ride!

                    


All Ella wants to do is help her mom in anyway at her family's bakery. But, Ella is just too small to do anything important. All she's allowed to do is sweep the floor, not anything important like helping take out macaroons from the oven or slicing a piece of pineapple pie for a customer. It's only when Mr Banjo, the delivery man, leaves a cake behind that Ella has a moment to shine and show her mom that she can be a big help. 

This was a very cute book with illustrations that reminded me of The Adventures of Babar (Although, it could have been also been the fact that this book's characters are elephants). This husband and wife team worked really well together to create a story and characters that were both really fun to read about. I enjoyed the illustrations particularly. I just thought they were so cute and they are still enticing me to draw Ella riding her cart filled with cake. 

Ella has one main obstacle she has to confront. You would think it would be her being too small but really it's two words: Belinda Blue. Belinda Blue is a very inconsiderate, pushy elephant who doesn't take no for an answer. She puts Ella in positions that have her compromising the arrival of her cake delivery. I think Belinda brings up a great conversation for parents to talk to their kids about bullies or people who only think of themselves. It would have been nice to see Ella tell Belinda how she feels about her actions but maybe in another one of Ella's books.

I noticed Ella only seems to have one parent. I haven't read any other books about her so I don't know if it is true. If Ella has a single parent I think that's really inspiring and shows diversity in the way families can be different from one another. Her mom being a single parent and a business owner? I loved that about this book. 

I would recommend reading Ella Takes the Cake. It was a very cute book that is a conversation starter. I would also recommend reading Ella's first book, Ella the Elegant Elephant, before this one since there was reference to Ella's lucky hat and of course so you can understand the basics of Ella's life in Little Village.

By the way, the book series was created into a TV series called Ella the Elephant.