Rude cakes never say please or thank you. They are selfish, thoughtless, and don’t listen to their parents. Dreaded didacticism is turned on its head and lands frosting side down on the floor (well, metaphorically) in this picture book that does, indeed, offer an overt lesson in manners. But it’s delivered so entertainingly that it’s impossible to mind. Rude cakes, or in this case one particular rude cake, is a small, pink, tiered, manner-less confection who bullies and bellows and “thinks baths are dumb.” Enter the giant cyclopses, who, it turns out, are polite and kind and “LOVE to wear jaunty little hats.” Unfortunately, they’ve mistaken one particular little rude cake for a hat. Eventually, they hear the hat’s pleas (actually, it’s a solitary “PLEASE!”) and are most apologetic (of course!). The absurd premise (they’re CAKES and cyclopses!) is amplified by numerous small moments of humor in the dialogue bubbles and background details. In the end, it turns out “no cake is ever too rude to change.” (Ages 3–7)

Who knew that cakes were so rude?! In this deliciously entertaining book, a not-so-sweet cake—who never says please or thank you or listens to its parents—gets its just desserts. Mixing hilarious text and pictures, Rowboat Watkins, a former Sendak fellow, has cooked up a laugh-out- loud story that can also be served up as a delectable discussion starter about manners or bullying, as it sweetly reminds us all that even the rudest cake can learn to change its ways.