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mat_tobin's review
4.0
It's a busy day at the local park. There's a band playing, dogs barking and chasing each other and people busying about. No one seems to notice the usually quiet Mrs. Cake who has gone to a lot of trouble to put on a fantastic spread. Maybe the grey-blue cat and a young child could lend a hand?
Holding hands, the young child who appreciates Mrs. Cake's effort, guides her around the park to tell all the others what she has done but they cannot get heard. The Dads are too busy playing with rubber ducks, the Mums are too busy chatting to one another and the older children are impossible to keep up with. It's exhausting not getting heard.
But not to worry, the cat has a cunning plan and, in the end, the community all gather to applaud Mrs. Cake's achievements. There's nothing like cake to bring us all together.
Milner's illustrations are borderline surreal in a welcome way. People are on the fringe of seeming distance and unreal except for Mrs. Cake and the child who almost always face us. Even the landscape feels two dimensional as if this is a 'stage' for some comtemplation. Milner tells us at the back, that the inspiration for the book was about politicians not listening to the public and those who shout loudest often get heard the most. It's very clever. Will children get it? Yes, of course. They'll get it in a way that makes sense to them with Milner leaving plenty of gaps for us to bring our own interpretations. It's challenging but in all the right ways.
Holding hands, the young child who appreciates Mrs. Cake's effort, guides her around the park to tell all the others what she has done but they cannot get heard. The Dads are too busy playing with rubber ducks, the Mums are too busy chatting to one another and the older children are impossible to keep up with. It's exhausting not getting heard.
But not to worry, the cat has a cunning plan and, in the end, the community all gather to applaud Mrs. Cake's achievements. There's nothing like cake to bring us all together.
Milner's illustrations are borderline surreal in a welcome way. People are on the fringe of seeming distance and unreal except for Mrs. Cake and the child who almost always face us. Even the landscape feels two dimensional as if this is a 'stage' for some comtemplation. Milner tells us at the back, that the inspiration for the book was about politicians not listening to the public and those who shout loudest often get heard the most. It's very clever. Will children get it? Yes, of course. They'll get it in a way that makes sense to them with Milner leaving plenty of gaps for us to bring our own interpretations. It's challenging but in all the right ways.
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