Thunder Cake is my favorite book by Patricia Polacco, who grew up in Michigan where there was plenty of stormy weather. A girl is terribly frightened by the thunder and lightning and hides under the bed, until her grandmother - her Babushka - tells her she needs to come and help her make Thunder Cake before the storm gets all the way to their farmhouse. The girl gathers eggs from the mean old hen who likes to peck, milks the cow who likes to kick people, and climbs high on the trellis to gather the secret ingredient (overripe tomatoes). Each time they see the lightning, they count until they hear the thunder to see how many miles away the storm is.
When they finally get the cake in the oven, the grandmother says there is no way the girl could be scared of a little old thunder and lightning since she performed so many brave tasks that day.
There’s a lot of great onomatopoeia in the story, especially the “Boom Baroooooom!” of the thunder. The
book even had a recipe for Thunder Cake, and I made copies in case anyone wanted to give the recipe a try. Students will have to let me know if they make it!
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