Walter the Baker

Walter the Baker by Eric Carle is an excellent resource to have in your classroom for all elementary students. It is the story of a well-liked baker, Walter, who makes amazing sweet rolls that the Duke and Duchess love to eat every morning. Except one night, Walter's cat spilled all of the milk he needed to make the sweet rolls and had to use water instead! Needless to say, the Duke and Duchess were not happy, and threatened to banish him from their land forever. Walter's only chance of staying was to make a great-tasting pastry through which the sun could shine 3 times. At the last minute, Walter did it...the pretzel! The Duke and Duchess loved it and let him stay in their land. This book can be used in many different ways in the classroom. It can be used as a fun story to tell young children, a lesson on cooking/pretzels for 2nd-3rd graders, and even a social studies lesson on the caste system of the rulers and the workers for older ementary grades. I recommend this book to any teacher to have in their classroom!

This is the tale of Walter who is possibly the world's best baker. After an unfortunate accident, Walter finds himself on the wrong side of his Duke and is faced with possible banishment! Walter uses all his talents in the kitchen and with a bit of good fortune he is able to satisfy the Duke's challenge and create a new treat for the entire world to enjoy. We received this book as a gift before moving to Germany. My children were 1 and 5 at the time and both loved it. Even my restless one year old could sit though the whole story. Collage pictures (a Carle trademark) are more detailed in this book than in Carle's more elementary stories. Here we have background - a kingdom, people standing in line outside the bakery, a large group of horses and dogs in a scene. The pictures alone entertained my girls for hours as they choose their favorite horse, dog and pretzel in the pictures and made up their own stories of the other characters pictured. This is a great book for anyone who likes a make believe tale of how things could have been invented. It is a nice story about working hard to solve a problem even when it is seems "unfair". It is a great book for reading in Germany with bakeries on every corner and so many pretzels to choose from!

of the most fascinating tales I've read! Have you ever been in a disaster, so great you didn't know what to do? If so Walter Jr. had the same problem after upsetting the Duke and Ducthess of his home town. Walter, a baker, made delicious sweet rolls for the Duke and Ducthess of his home town. However one day Walter's cat tipped over a can of milk. Walter witnessed the incident and became desperate. "What shall I do?," he thought. He had no fresh milk and without that his rolls tasted awful! Thinking that the Duke and Ducthess wouldn't notice, Walter substituted the milk with water. As soon as the Duke and Ducthess tasted the inferior rolls they called Walter over. The Duke almost banished Walter but quickly thought about how much he'd miss the sweet rolls. He considered giving Walter the ultimate challenge, invent a roll which the rising sun can shine through three times, use one piece of dough, and it must taste good. What will Walter do and what will he make? Read this spectacular book to find out how and what Walter creates!