excellent - Katrina

This book is a fictionalized book about a young woman named Amelia Simmons, who was in fact a real person that wrote America's first cook book back when America gained its independence. She was a young orphan who helped out a family and learned how to cook, from there she creates cakes for everyone to enjoy, even the first president George Washington.
It is a decorated story on how Amelia might have created her cookbook. Illustrations are charming and in my opinion reflect the era in which Amelia Simmons lived. ( )

Really grand story, based on a real person, who wrote a real cookbook. ( )

This book tells the story a young woman finding her personal freedom and growth after moving in with a large family after her parents died. She learned to bake and became a huge success, eventually feeding George Washington cake. As the book mentions, Amelia Simmons, gains her independence at the same time that America becomes a nation itself.
I think this is a great book for k-3 because it is like a biography (not much is known about Amelia's life), but it also tells some historical facts about the revolutionary war. ( )

Independence Cake by Deborah Hopkinson is a light-hearted picture book that I enjoyed reading. This historical fiction book is about a young orphan, Amelia Simmons, during the early colonial period of American in the late 1700s. Amelia was a real person, but very little is known about her other than that she loved to bake for her adoptive family. The fictional part of this story is that she makes these cakes for George Washington on Inauguration Day. It was actually hard to tell if this book was, in fact, historical fiction because the author does a great job interlacing in factual details with fiction. It wasn’t until the author’s note that she mentions that there is no record stating our first president had her cakes. I enjoyed the fact that Amelia’s recipe was included in the story. I think it would be interesting to read this story when teaching students about early America, and also relate it to a math lesson about converting measurements. ( )