Do you remember the first book you ever read? I remember it clear as day. I sat down on a loveseat with my dad in our living room. I handed him my favorite book, Panda Cake, and asked him to read it to me again. He said, “I’d like you to read it to me.” I told him I couldn’t, the book was too long and too grown up. He assured me that I could read it and that he’d help me if I needed it. So we dove in.
The story riveted me. A panda mom tells her panda children to go out and buy ingredients to make a panda cake. The oldest squanders his time and money. The youngest doesn’t. In the end, the Panda Cake is made and lessons are learned about sharing and kindness and responsibility. I don’t know what I liked best about this book: the fact that there was baking involved… I seriously wanted to make one of those cakes or the fact that the panda child learned a loving lesson. (I was one of those rule-following children who faked being well in order to not miss school when I was sick).
I still have the book and everytime I see it, I recall that it was the first book I ever read by myself and I read it to my dad. Mostly, I still remember the pride I felt that day. I still want to make that Panda Cake too and my dream may be answered by Heidi. She’s been canning and jarring and figs are in abundance right now. Low and behold she found a fig cake recipe with ingredients closely resembling the Panda Cake. I hear it is divine and have a clue as to what the panda children enjoyed after their adventure. I will be making it soon and enjoying a slice with my dad.
We wrote Miss Rhonda’s Readers for your kids…so that they could enjoy the magic of reading their own story. When the saddle up next to you with books, ask them to read to you. Help when they need it, but sit back and let them work through it. They will beam for their whole life. Trust me.