Virginia KahlCritiques

We revisit once again the Duke, Duchess, and their thirteen daughters. This time, a Robber Barron has kidnapped them for ransom. He quickly becomes rather overwhelmed with caring for thirteen little girls, and instead begins to pay the Duke and Duchess to take them back! I found this book hilarious, but note that it has a somewhat critical tone of the experience of many children in one family.

Have you ever had a neighborhood cat you suspected probably went from house to house and was fed by multiple people? The village in this book has a cat exactly like that. When the local authorities come by to uphold the newly-passed law that every household must own a cat, the village children creatively find a way to make the same cat appear differently at every house. (The cat of course hates this treatment.) This story is of course humorous and Kahl’s signature rhythmic rhyming.

This quaint rhyming story seems like a classic, but I’ve never seen or heard of it before! The Duke, the Duchess, their thirteen daughters, and king all have their ways that spend their time, but when the Duchess grows tired of reading and writing she decides to bake a cake — a lovely light luscious delectable cake. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear the Duchess doesn’t really know how to make a cake. She uses so much yeast that the cakes rises right up to Heaven and carries her with it! This story is told with a beautiful rhythm and a rich vocabulary that’s almost a tongue twister. The illustrations have clean lines and simple colors and are humorously expressive.

The rhyming is wonderful. I hate clunky rhymes and these are super.

46 months - Great rhyming text and unique story. A fun read! The illustrations are simple with a simple color pallet of an older book.

Back when I was a homeschooler, this book was a legend. Long out-of-print and sought after by many; like "Miss Suzy," old copies of "Duchess" were snapped up on Ebay in fierce bidding wars. As soon as it came back into print, I bought it and now I see what all the ruckus was about. It is adorable, charming, witty, and it even rhymes! An instant favorite in my home.

A holiday favorite with great rhymes -- my wife and I read it every year for Christmas, even though we're Jewish!

Forgotten classic of a cake that rises so much it lifts the titular duchess up into the sky. Luckily her youngest daughter is a bit of a greedy pig, and so has the idea to eat her mother back down again and all is well. Even the cake tastes good, though it's made with dill.

Artwork isn't quite to my style, and it's fairly monochromatic, but the words more than make up for it.

This was one of my favorite books growing up. The silly rhyming text and the wordplay is delightful. The Duchess Bakes a Cake is likewise enjoyable (and easier to find).

NA