Martha Speaks: Martha Bakes a Cake/Martha habla: Martha hornea un pastel
By Karen Barss • Based on the characters created by Susan Meddaugh
Translated by Carlos Calvo
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2012 • 24 pages
Paperback ($3.99)
ISBN: 978-0-547-71896-5
Ages 5-7
Martha is a stout yellow lab with an amazing ability—she can talk to humans. In this bilingual edition of Martha Speaks, Martha’s owner, Helen, is feeling a little down about not having won an art contest. To cheer her up, Helen’s mom plans to bake a cake, but then work gets in the way. Stepping in to help, Martha and her fellow canine pal, Skits, endeavor to bake the cake for Helen. What ensues is a cute—if not a little silly—story about Martha and Skits’ foray into baking.
Read Related: My Big Sister/Mi hermana mayor
Together, the dogs watch a baking DVD, charm a neighbor for ingredients, and receive assistance from the local mailman and pizza delivery boy. Beginning readers will enjoy this simple tale, categorized as a level 2 reader, and its sweet ending. Additional reading levels in the publisher’s series are listed on the book’s title page.
—Reviewed by Kacy Vega, Coordinator, Leaps and Bounds, Arizona State University
