Title: Thunder Cake
Author/Illustrator: Patricia Polacco
Publisher: Baker & Taylor (1990)
Pages: 29
Genre: Realistic Fiction
The story is told from the perspective of the grandchild to Babushka or grandmother. The child fears the thunder, so Babushka suggests they make thunder cake. A clever way to get the child to stop from hiding from the sounds of rolling thunder, the two proceed to find the necessary ingredients for the cake. 1-2-3-4… the child slowly counts after seeing each flash of lighting, after all Babushka has said told her to do so to mark how far away the storm is. One mile for each second. Slowly as the storm comes closer and closer the two collect more and more ingredients. Eventually they are able to make the cake and symbolically the child overcomes the fear of thunder.
As I’ve come to realize, I enjoy books which tell stories that allow the child/hero of the story to be a mirror for the reader child. This is book is no different. Although the child of the story wears a similar garb to Babushka, the child is only referred to as ‘child’ never ‘boy’ or ‘girl’, and although not a perfect uniform representation of all creeds and colors of children, this does allow for a neutral view of the child in the story to be better relatable. I must admit, however, I have a soft spot for this story as it is one my mother used to read me to help quell my fears as well, so perhaps there may be a bias.
There is, arguably, a reason to think Babushka is a great protector and teacher. She is almost explicitly saintly. She walks into the room to see the child covered under the bed covers and when she exclaims to the child to come out there is a picture of Christ watching over the child. So too does Christ look at the child in the same way Babushka does when they are held together in the chair.
Babushka gives the child a coping mechanism to delay the overwhelming fear that the child has of the sound. I think it could be said that this works for thunder as it does for other things. Although certain anxieties require more attention and care than just slowly counting up or down, this counting distracts the child’s anxiety felt by facing a menacing sound that cannot be seen. It’s important too that the thing that is feared is heard but never seen because fear often comes in ways that can’t be explicitly understood. If someone is nervous at the idea of speaking in front of others the fear often manifests itself in an abstraction of the reality of the situation, for example; but, that doesn’t make the fear itself any less real. So, by counting slowly, 1-2-3-4-5… the child learns to distract from what it is that is feared and use what was once scary as a tool of measurement. THe child is so busy with the task at hand and then counting that the fear is displaced to what’s going on in front of them. The Kicking cow and The Peck Hen are both things to be feared as well, but with the combination of setting out to accomplish a specific task, and with the careful eye ready to keep count as lightning flashes, the child manages to do it all without even realising it.
The illustrations of the book are beautiful and comforting as well, in some sense. The features of both the grandmother and child are round and soft, in other words kind looking. The animals, even the descriptively aggressive ones, look curious and concerned with every action of the child. Perhaps the fact these would be aggressive animals look unimposing by picture reinforces the idea that some fears are conquerable and only a manifestation of one’s own psychology. Moreover the cake itself is a tale of the controlling of the child’s fears too. By slowly doing tasks and counting away the child accomplished many other feats that were thought of as ‘brave’ and when that is explicitly pointed out the child feels self-assured and accomplished. In this way, at the end, the child and Babushka are able to laugh at the rolling thunder as it looms over-head, the two are able to laugh at the fear the child once felt, and the child has matured and grown.
It should be noted again for emphasis, that some anxieties need to be managed in ways other than just willing them away, as the story allows us to think. However, being told that some fears are manageable is important as well. This should be a talking point when discussing this book as it lends itself nicely into the discussion.