Did You Have a Bite of My Radish Cake?

Author Pei-Min Hsu

Illustrator Shih-Han Kao

Award A-khioh Award for Picture Book

A-tshiu received fresh radishes from her Dad. She couldn’t wait to make a radish cake right away. She followed the steps learned from home to make it. When the cake was ready to enjoy, she was so excited to open the steamer. Surprisingly, someone already had a bite of the cake. A-tshiu had no idea of what’s happening and tried so hard to find “the suspect”. So she asked the dog, rabbit, pig, squirrel, ants…. “Did you have a bite of my radish cake?”. Sadly, no one admitted it. When A-tshiu was trying to find the answer, she asked the same question again and again. Kids can learn the sentence pattern easily in the repetition. When A-tshiu was doing the “interrogation”, there so many expressions of “eating” to learn. The difference of word choice shows different levels of how the animals love to eat. There are so many ways to describe the body language of the animals. “You’re licking your lips, and you’re mouthwatering.” These are the evidence that make them a potential suspect.