I Love You Like Crazy Cakes
written by Rose Lewis
illustrated by Jane Dyer

A picture book about single parent adoption

Children's book review by Steve Barancik

Ages 2-8

I found this book notable for its specificity. Essentially the true story of author Rose Lewis, who as a single woman adopted a daughter from China, this is probably not the book for you if

1. You aren't a single woman
2. You didn't adopt a child from China
3. You don't live in the U.S.

If however you are that woman, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes is THE book for you.

It's a sweet little story. Lewis presents babies in a Chinese orphanage, tended lovingly by nannies, "but each was missing something - a mother."

Fathers are not mentioned.

The adoption process is detailed in a fashion young children can understand. Mommy-to-be writes a letter to China asking if she can adopt. She receives a letter back saying that she can...if she promises to take good care of her new baby!

Mommy flies to China and meets her baby. She takes her to her hotel. She says,

I love you like crazy cakes.

And, indeed, how could she not? (Watercolorist Dyer's work is detailed and sweet.)

The return home is chronicled, with friends and family welcoming the new baby, as well as words and sweet sorrow for the Chinese mother who wasn't able to keep her baby.

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes does everything you want a good picture book about adoption to do. It expresses thoughts and sentiment sweetly and simply and creates a narrative around an adopted baby's arrival in a new home that conveys everything that needs to be conveyed:

You were chosen. You are loved.

What else do you need!

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