Sometimes being brave is just being calm and thinking about something else.Īn ideal book to let us look at something that is often very scary and remove the “fear” by watching our character have success in celebrating her ability to be brave. Sometimes being brave isn’t doing some amazingly courageous act. We had a great discussion about how once we don’t hide from our fears, we can face them and realize they don’t have power over us. A real Thunder Cake must reach the oven before the storm arrives. This is Thunder Cake baking weather, calls Grandma, as she and her granddaughter hurry to gather the ingredients around the farm. “The ingredients aren’t special! It is making the cake that helps her realize that thunder is just a sound because she stops worrying about it. Synopsis A loud clap of thunder booms, and rattles the windows of Grandmas old farmhouse. “ It is really just a normal cake but because she had to go get the ingredients from things that scared her (the hen and the cow) she started to realize that she is actually brave” What was going to be the magic fear dissolver? Well, maybe it was something else entirely going on? It didn’t take long for someone to talk out their thoughts on this: I asked what magical ingredient it might contain that would take away fear? We had watched our little character collect eggs from the mean Peck-Hen and milk from Kick Cow and then chocolate, sugar and flour from the dry shed.

This whole Thunder Cake idea seemed quite intriguing. It was all very exciting and almost like a storm was descending on us as we read through the pages. My students loved counting along and then laughing when I read out Polacco’s different versions of thunder: The mention of ThunderCake gets some attention and Grandma is able to explain how to count seconds when you see lightning and stop counting when you hear the thunder to help figure out how far away the storm is. Grandma soothes her explaining that summer storms full of thunder and lightning are made for baking Thunder Cake. The little girl in this story is very afraid of thunderstorms – hide under the bed afraid. Her book Thunder Cake helped us continue our discussion about how to be courageous and how to manage our fears.

I am a huge fan of author/illustrator Patricia Polacco.

Thunder cake read by patricia polacco