Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai
Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai is a junior fiction novel, perfect for middle-grad readers. It is the story of Jingwen, an 11-year-old, who moves to a new country, but feels like he's landed on Mars. Jinhwen struggles to learn to language, so he falls behind in school, and, like many kids, he is constantly annoyed with his younger brother, Yanghao. Together the boys attempt to make all the cakes on the menu of Pie in the Sky, the bakery their father had planned to open before unexpectedly passing away. This is the story of their hilarious journey to make all the cakes before their mama finds out what they're up to.
Pie in the Sky is this year's All Iowa Reads selection for children. The purpose of All Iowa Reads is to foster a sense of unity through reading. Iowans statewide are encouraged to read and talk about a single book title in the same year. Libraries, book clubs, schools and local organizations are encouraged to sponsor discussion.
New this year, the Iowa Center for the Book will host virtual author visits with each of the All Iowa Reads authors! The webinars will be open to the public and will last about an hour; attendees will be able to submit questions via the chat function. See the full virtual visit schedule and register!
Although they both know very little English when they move to Australia, Yanghao picks it up much faster than his older brother Jingwen, in part because he spends much of his time reading and rereading the book The Little Prince by Antonie de Saint-Exupery. Yanghao uses a pencil and his translation dictionary to mark all the unknown words in the book and then rereads it again and again. His growing grasp of English helps him navigate their new life more easily.
Pie in the Sky is the name of the cake shop their father planned to open before his unexpected death. He decided to name his shop this because as he was learning English someone told him this idiom meant - an impossible dream. Opening a cake shop was his dream, and pie and cake were close enough.
The final cake that Jingwen and Yanghao make is a multi-layered rainbow cake. The boys write to their grandparents to get the recipe for this cake and Jingwen is extremely happy when he finally gets to make it. The recipe is included at the end of the book:
After you read about all the delicious cakes these kids make, you'll surely want to try to make one of your own! Do you have a favorite cake recipe or is there one you've always wanted to try?
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