Children's Advocate Pens Storybook Based on Mom's Chocolate Cake
by Randall Murphree
July 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - A cake still warm from the oven is a gift anyone can appreciate. For children's advocate and author Kathy Young, using her mom's secret chocolate cake recipe cooks up some sweet memories, too. I seldom review children's books, but I couldn't pass up the chocolate cake.In The Gift, her new story-picture book, Young tells the tale of little Janie, whose mother calls her to the kitchen to "help" bake a chocolate cake using Mom's own secret recipe. It is Janie's favorite food. Mom and Janie have a typical mother-daughter conversation during their time in the kitchen.
Illustrator Pamela Pollard Finch puts the icing on the cake (sorry, please forgive the pun) with warm, four-color artwork scattering chocolate icing over almost every page.
The author has 16 years of experience and plenty of professional credentials to establish her as an expert on children's issues -- childcare director, preschool teachers and adjunct professor of child and family studies. However, it is Young's memories of Betty Chandler, her mother, that help infuse those credentials with a deep passion for children. The Gift (Tishomingo Tree Press, 2005) (http://www.tishomingotree.com), is based on her mom's chocolate cake.
I knew Betty Chandler and, on occasion, benefited personally from her secret recipe, and even more from the tender heart of Christian witness demonstrated in the lives of Betty and her husband, Tommy. Her daughter does well to record this story in memory of Betty.
In The Gift, Janie declares, "Mama, your cake is the best cake in the whole wide world .... When I get big, will you give me the recipe?"
"When you are old enough to understand ...," Mom assures Janie. Of course, Janie insists that she can keep secrets now, but Mom uses their time together to help Janie learn principles of patience, love and trust.
"I've written children's stories for several years," Young said in an exclusive interview. "But nothing this real or emotional. About a year after my mother's death, I was asked to make the chocolate cake for a charity fundraiser. I was filled with gratitude that I had something so special to share."
She thinks it is not necessary to categorize children's literature into the traditional categories of fiction or nonfiction. "This story is based on real feelings, real relationships and a real recipe," she said. Because it was real, she said the writing experience was much easier than with some of her other stories.
Artist Finch said she still can envision pictures from the books of her own childhood. For her, creating pictures of Janie and Mom was an opportunity to provide the same kind of memories for children who will read The Gift of have it read to them. Both author and artist live with their husbands and children in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
One of the strongest elements of the story is its creative, open-ended conclusion -- no typical resolution with a conventional moral-of-the-story or all-lived-happily-ever-after. Instead, Young offers parents a subtle encouragement to continue dialogue with their children when they reach the end of the book.
"I definitely didn't want to include 'The End' in the illustrations," explained Young. "I speak with mothers all the time, and I can say through personal experience that we need to be reminded to slow down and nurture relationships with our children. My hope is that this book will prompt some meaningful moments and 'remembering' times together. Also, Christian mothers have such an awesome responsibility. I would like for them to be reminded of this responsibility as well."
The Gift -- artwork worth putting in a frame, and a story worth putting in your heart. Grannies, moms, and daughters, it can be a gift cherished in your family for years to come.
Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
