Penny Pangolin and the Missing Ant Cake

Yay! My child and I have never read a book with a pangolin as the MC. This proved to be a good first. It is not a long book and is suitable for all ages of kids, especially for those in their first 1-4 years of primary school. Yet, despite its length, it had two unexpected turns for us. This is a unique book that gives its characters agency and it deals with themes such as jealousy, adversaries, sharing, forgiveness, acceptance and ants. Save the pangolins! (Written for a great cause too).

The style of the pictures were easy to anticipate from the cover. This is not a style I personally like, though, it exceeded my expectations and I see why it was chosen as a style for this book series. It suits it. The pangolins, their life, and the vividness are depicted well via it. The font is cool too. My child said “this book is awesome”.

Penny Pangolin and the Missing Ant Cake is an appealing and colorful illustrated book for kids by Wayne D. Kramer. Released 13th March 2023, it's 32 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The other books featuring Penny and friends are also currently available on KU.

This is a fun short story with a mystery. When Penny's baked lemon ant cake goes missing, she and her friend Vin go looking for clues to solve the mystery. The book is peppered throughout with small illustrated details and interesting background species of plants and animals in Penny's neighborhood.

The art by Jade Zivanovic is rendered electronically and is balanced, whimsical, colorful, and appealing. The drawings are full of small details which invite readers to pause and take a closer look. In fact, the author/illustrator have hidden some animals and items in the pictures scattered throughout the book which invite readers to page through and find later.

It's not just a fun anthropomorphic animal adventure, the author has included information about species conservation (they're critically endangered in the wild) and the importance of helping protect wildlife and nature. They've provided links for further reading and a QR code for more content.

Four stars. Really cute short story with some good messages. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, home use, or gift giving.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Vin was visiting Penny, and she wanted to impress him, and baked a wonderful cake. Now the question was, where is it? now that Vin had arrived, the cake was missing.

This is such a gorgeous story and a great example of friendship and why it matters. It was also the first time I ever considered the idea of a lemon ant cake. The illustrations are delightful and a perfect accompaniment to the book. I know very little about Pangolins so this was fun even reading as an adult! Thanks for making this book available

Penny is happy about a friend coming to visit so she and Mum bake their favorite cake. But when the friend gets there, there are only crumbs left! They find that the culprit has gone into the dangerous jungle with it and they all learn a lesson in forgiveness and sharing. I still think that these books are so much better in print!
The illustrations by Jade Zivanovic are fun, intricate, brilliantly colorful, and delightful.
Well suited for reading alone or WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to everyone, but especially to a school or your local public library!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on PDF from BooksGoSocial via NetGalley. Thank you!
@wildnetorg @SavePangolins #QRCodeResources

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

This is another children's book that reminded me of the books I read as a child, and I know I would've enjoyed this book as a youngster as well. It was pretty easy to follow and the illustrations were fun. I would read this to my child if I had one.

Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

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