This is one of my favourite children's books. I bought it for my eldest son, and stupidly gave it away. I borrowed it from the library for my middle son, and now I'm going to buy it again for my youngest son.
It's a simple story about a little boy making himself a birthday cake with the help of his animal friends.
In my experience, toddlers love to hear stories about things they know about from their own lives, like making cakes and celebrating birthdays.
This story is a little different to the everyday, in that the animals help to make the cake, but the surroundings are familiar, and there is a happy scene at the end in which everyone is sitting around the birthday table. There is also a little twist on one page when it looks as though the little boy is going to do a 'Little Red Hen' and eat the cake all on his own.
There is a lot of word repetition which helps young children follow along, and the illustrations are friendly, gentle and reassuring without being soppy, and have the familiar Helen Oxenbury everyday humour.
A lovely book for toddlers and pre-schoolers.