Little Bitty Bakery (which is appropriate for ages 2 and up) written by Leslie Muir and illustrated by Betsy Lewin is a sweet story of an elephant baker who is so busy baking that she doesn’t have time to make her own birthday cake. She goes to sleep sad because she had no time to make a birthday cake. While she is sleeping, mice come into the bakery and make her a birthday cake. I love this book because of its vocabulary that it teaches your little ones (e.g. “brioche”, “creme brulee”, “eclair”). It exposes your little ones to various types of foods and cooking tools that they might not be exposed to every day. It makes it a great opportunity to try new foods (go out to the bakery and get a sandwich on brioche bread). Language concepts that you can work on with this book include: expanding vocabulary, phonemic awareness, answering “wh” questions, emotions (elephant was scared when she heard someone downstairs), sequencing, temperature (can discuss how the oven was “hot”), and describing. It is a also a great opportunity to talk about your child’s birthday and ask them “wh” questions regarding their birthday and what cake they want. The Little Bitty Bakery also give some excellent recipes in the back of the book. I am going to be trying these recipes soon!