in art history, specializing in Russian and Greek painting and iconographic history. On the inside back cover of this book, in the author biography section, it says that she studied in both the United States and Australia and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art and also earned a Ph.D. She bases most of her books on her own memories this one seems to be true enough to be labeled non-fiction. I can tell from reading her books that this author comes from a very close and warm-hearted family.

I recommend this book for early readers and for read aloud for 4-9 year olds. She writes children’s picture books, more for elementary school aged children than preschoolers. I’ve been on a Patricia Polacco reading binge. (It would be extremely easy to make vegan!) It’s a very unusual cake, but I’ll bet that it tastes delicious, and including it was a nice touch! There’s a recipe for “My Grandma’s Thunder Cake” in the back of the book. What a creative and loving woman she was! This is an apparently true story of how Patricia Polacco’s beloved grandmother helped her get over her fear of thunderstorms. The animals and people and settings are all painted so lovingly. I also came close to crying, no surprise to me now with Polacco’s books. I made peculiar sounds as I laughed at the illustrations of a cat that appears on many of the pages. Oh, I’m glad that I was alone when I read this.

Thunder cake book