It's a Gingerbread House!

by Vera B. Williams

Let Grandpa Ben teach you all you need to know about making, baking, and building a gingerbread house. His clear instructions unlock the secrets of a delicious holiday tradition. An "attractive book....The directions are thorough and careful."--Booklist.

Genres: Christmas

47 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Graduate of Black Mountain College, North Carolina, where she majored in graphic art. In her own words, she has "done graphic art, school teaching, children-raising [she has two daughters and a son], has run a bakery and been a cook in schools and restaurants." (from back flap of book)

Vera B. Williams is the winner of the 2009 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature.

You can read much more about this author here or here

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I really and majorly do enjoy the framing story Vera B. Williams provides for her illustrated and delightfully user friendly (in other words nicely easy to follow and to imitate for the intended audience, for children) how-to picture book It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It (1978). For indeed, I love love love how the siblings in It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It receive a gingerbread house (in the mail, as a package) from their grandfather as a Christmas present (and that it is a grandfather and not a grandmother who has baked and sent the gingerbread house as usually this would generally be the other way round) but with an included letter of step-by-step directions for making another gingerbread house since Grandpa realises that his grandkids will of course not be able to resist sampling (eating) the gingerbread house right away and will thus of course want and need to make another gingerbread house. And yes, the story Williams presents for It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It is tenderly sweet (and no, with no pun intentionally being considered here either) and to also point out that the textual allusions Vera B. Williams provides to Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm's Hänsel und Gretel (about the nibbling little mice), this definitely makes me smile appreciatively.

So essentially, It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It shows that you make the gingerbread house dough, then need to let it rest and that after the dough has been left to rest, you roll it out, cut it into the walls (front/side) and roof pieces according to the patterns that have been provided, then bake and cool the gingerbread house pieces and put them (glue them) together with frosting (and that the frosting needs to be used right after it has been made since otherwise it becomes too hard to use). And finally, It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It is decorated with diverse kinds of candy, with gumdrops, nuts, sesame squares, or whatever you like. Fun and easy to follow directions, perfect for do-it-yourself gift givers (and very nicely child friendly), and although I read It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It on Open Library, I am most definitely going to obtain a copy for myself, not only for Vera B. Williams' delightful introductory story (see above) but also because I kind of want to try to follow the oh so easy and clearly provided gingerbread house baking instructions in It's a Gingerbread House: Bake It, Build It, Eat It to make my own gingerbread house (both for myself and also for others, so yeah, once I get a copy of the book, I will probably need to double or triple the recipe, but hey, that should be easy to do).

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming guide to making gingerbread houses. The book begins with the story of children who receive a gingerbread house from their grandfather with the instructions to not eat the house until everyone has seen it at Christmas. You can imagine the result as the children each nibble at it. Fortunately their grandfather had predicted this result and had also sent them the instructions to build a new house. The bulk of the book contains clear step-by-step instructions to build a gingerbread house, tenderly written and illustrated as if from Grandpa. The book also contains templates for the base, walls, and roof of the gingerbread house. Not only a house making guide, this book has a heart with the warm introduction story.

[Amber Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library in about 1985 and we baked the gingerbread house. It worked, so the instructions were good. Alas, I have never seen the book since. I remember the story as being a heart-warming inter-generational one.