Frankenstein Takes the Cake

This was probably Adam Rex's best...the sort of book you can read again and again! It's so clever; one of my favorites is the Headless Horseman's blog. The poems dedicated to Frankenstein's wedding really do take the cake! Then there's the one which features Edgar Allen Poe doing a crossword puzzle when he's supposed to be writing poetry... a seriously recommended masterpiece!

Nice book. Great pictures and story is engaging. I bought it for myself because I love how Adam Rex draws and tells his creative stories. They Illustrations are great.

My kids, ages 9 & 11, love this book (as well as the previous Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich). And, well, so do I. In fact, with that first book, we laughed so hard we started coughing and had to put the book aside for few minutes to catch our breath. This newest book did't incite quite the same reaction but it is still worth the price for the illustrations alone. The rhymes don't flow as smoothly as before but heck, it's so fun just to look at the book (there's a lot to see, even in the end papers) that I couldn't bear to give it less than 5 stars. Keep it up, Mr. Rex...two kids (and a mom) here in California think you ROCK!

This book is a collection of 21 short stories which flow together and form a plot about the challenges of planning a wedding celebration for Mr. Frankenstein and his bride-to-be. Wedding guests include the headless horseman, Dracula and his son, along with little girl zombies. The excellent illustrations drew me to the book. They are very entertaining and were created by a variety of different techniques. It is an excellent picture book but I would not recommend it for children under the age of six. My favorite story was "Please Stop Staring at My Delicious Head: The Official Blog of the Headless Horseman" because it was really funny and well illustrated. People and birds crowded around the headless horseman and craved his pumpkin head for eating. The headless horseman was annoyed since he wanted people to be afraid of him not desirous of him as a yummy dessert. I recommend this book for boys and girls, ages 8-14, who love monsters, who aren't too scary.

I like cake. I like Frankenstein. Ipso facto: I like Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Oh fine. Maybe it's a little more complicated than that. Maybe I like other things about the book too. Perhaps the art. Maybe the characters. And there's always the off chance that what I really like about is that it's a picture book/poetry sequel that takes cool monsters and makes them loveable. Rex's first Frankenbook, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich was an odd little puppy. Poems about monsters, a weird variety of artistic styles, and quickfire punches of humor along the way. Rex probably could have copied the format of his first book poem for poem and nobody would have blinked an eye. Takes the Cake goes in a slightly different direction, however. Sure we have a lot of similarities (the black and white Edgar Allan Poe bits replace the Phantom of the Opera glimpses, for example) but for the first time Rex has added a bit of a plot to his story as well. Now you end up with a story, illustrations that pop the old eyeballs, and humor. Not, oh-gee-isn't-that-droll humor, but stuff that kids and adults will find positively hilarious. And yes, there's an obligatory poop joke too. Well, it's just about time for The Bride of Frankenstein to get married, and you know what that means? Letting her parents know that she is A) Alive again and B) Marrying a fellow who's green. Meanwhile there are catering questions to take into account (some advice... do NOT offer vampires "steak" or a werewolf silverware). There's a flower girl to freak out (not hard). And there's a buffet line with some delicious and unfortunate (for Dracula) garlic bread on the menu. Other poems in the book discuss varied topics as the Headless Horseman's dilapidated head, the dangers of answering your door the day after Halloween, and alien spam. It all ties together by the end, until you're left with a cranky raven badgering you to finish the book. An oddly pleasant experience. I'm just gonna stop myself right here and tell you why Rex deserves some attention for this book. I can already see some of you out there thinking, "Ah. More of the same." Fair enough. But what if I told you that in this title Rex has expanded his range of visual styles? Then publication page isn't much help in listing them since all its says is, "The illustrations in this book were done in pencil, charcoal, oils, and, in many cases, in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. And probably some other things." Grrr. Well let's count `em down anyway. You've got some comic book inspired panels and speech bubbles with a flat cartoonish style to match. There are the lush oil paintings that are what the people pay their money to see. There are basic pen-and-ink sketches, of course. There's photography, which is new (and somebody had to design the Headless Horseman's rapidly decomposing head). There's a fellow straight out of an Egyptian painting, gorgeous Japanese inspired inked images, some graphite (I think), and a comic strip that is perhaps t