Caterpillar Cake by Matt Goodfellow

Caterpillar Cake – at a glance

The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Poetry, colourful, whimsical, lively, funny.
Children’s book title: Caterpillar Cake. Read-Aloud Poems to Brighten Your Day
Children’s author: Matt Goodfellow.
Children’s illustrator: Krina Patel-Sage.
Genre: Poetry collection.
Published by: Otter-Barry Books.
ISBN: 9781915659392.
Recommended for children aged: 3+ year-olds.
First published: Paperback July 2024.
This children’s book is ideal for: Early readers.

To see the latest price or order, click on the book cover image.

Our review:

Caterpillar Cake
caterpillar
caterpillar
caterpillar cake

it’s the only thing
that my mum can make

crunchy
crispy
juicy too

filled with
caterpillar goo!

Caterpillar Cake is a wonderfully bright and cheerful poetry collection. Subtitled ‘Read-aloud poems to brighten your day,’ this is a light-hearted and inclusive picture book that is bound to put a smile on young readers’ faces. The 16 poems are full of fun and laughter. The easy rhymes make them ideal for children to read by themselves or enjoy reciting together with an adult. Topics include everyday activities such as playing on a swing as well as more adventurous tales of space travel.

Author Matt Goodfellow is a former primary school teacher and winner of the 2024 Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award (CLiPPA) for his moving verse novel The Final Year. In Caterpillar Cake, he displays an equally strong talent for writing for younger readers, with playful rhymes and madcap concepts that will engage even the most reluctant of readers. His educational background is apparent in the way the poems in this collection speak directly to young readers without ever talking down to them or belittling their interests and enthusiasms.

School photo
brush hair
wash face
pack bag
tie lace

give mum
big hug
don’t step
in mud

walk quick
on time
at school
all fine

sit down
back straight
keep still
that’s great

teeth white
hands link
big smile
now … BLINK!

The absence of punctuation in many of the poems helps them to flow and prevents young readers from getting tangled with grammatical conventions. The poems’ short length makes them easy to re-read and even learn by heart. Many of the poems play with type-setting, with words squiggling about on the page or flying up in the clouds. Although each poem is its own little world, a theme of having fun and enjoying the freedom of childhood links several of the poems.

Krina Patel-Sage’s illustrations are beautifully bright and engaging. The images portray a great diversity of young characters to ensure that poetry is seen as fully representative and accessible to all readers.

Caterpillar Cake is a bright and fun-filled poetry collection that will appeal to fans of Michael Rosen and Joseph Coelho.

• Free downloadable activity.

Many thanks to Otter-Barry Books for the review copy.

To order a class set of this book, please click below to order via uk.bookshop.org, an organisation that supports local bookshops, or Amazon.co.uk.

Buy from UK.Bookshop.Org Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Disclosure: If you buy books using the buttons above: we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops; as an Amazon Associate schoolreadinglist.co.uk earns from qualifying purchases.

If you like Caterpillar Cake by Matt Goodfellow you might also like: our reviews of Crossing the Line by Tia Fisher, The Boy Lost in the Maze by Joseph Coelho, Forwards Always by Matthew Hodson and The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton.

Browse our  Year 10 book list.