Starred Review ALA Booklist (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Starred Review What would it be like to be the creator of the universe? This book's answer: like a small child who's into baking but not particularly careful about following a recipe. This is an entertaining twist on the scientific account of how everything began, from the big bang to the primordial soup to the creation of stars and planets. It's also a nonsensical tale about a little girl bringing the universe into being through her cooking skills. It's a setup full of contradictions from the get-go ("To bake a universe, you need a heaping pile of nothing"). It has fun by applying the unimaginable scale of the universe to the human ("Set your timer to 180 million years"). The genius lies in how the book uses absurdity to make things that are by nature incomprehensible om the speed of light to invisible quarks ss intimidating, giving readers a way to understand the scientific account of the universe through the imagination. In the end, the protagonist chef has waited billions of years for her universe to bake, and she can tell it's ready because it looks exactly like everyone else's universe, including her friends' and neighbors'. The fitting end to this tale is the universality of the universe: "It isn't complete until it belongs to everyone."

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

For Carvlin and Biggs, conjuring a universe is just like whipping up a recipe, only with a much longer prep time. Centering a paper-white chef, the creators launch a recipe that requires popping “a heaping pile of nothing” into an oven that’s set to “Super Duper Really Very Mega Hot.” After much waiting (“Set your timer for 180 million years”), the universe is done; now it just needs to cool for another 13.6 billion years. The metaphorical explanation may be hard to track for readers new to the concepts, but black line cartooning, punctuated by swirls of nonpareil colors, offers an enjoyable irreverence, and the mash-up of unabashedly nerdy kid humor and cooking tips is indeed tasty: to see if the universe is done yet, stick a toothpick “in the center of your universe. If gases come out, it needs more time. But if you pluck out a star, you’re all set!” An extensive afterword concludes. Ages 6–8. (Mar.)

School Library Journal (Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2022)

Gr 13 Maybe creating a universe is just as simple as following a recipe. In this picture book explanation of the Big Bang Theory, readers learn what it takes to "bake" a universe, starting with "nothing." Using step-by-step instructions, Carvlin tells the temperature readers need for their oven (Absolute Hot) and will be given approximate timetables for when to check their universe and what to look for. Recommendations for additional equipment, including sunglasses, are also provided. If lucky, within 13.6 billion years, their universes will be ready. For a volume targeted at younger readers, this explanation is more confusing than helpful. Terms such as quark , atom , and gravity are either introduced with no definition, or context clues that only provide partial meaning. Definitions and an extensive explanation of the Big Bang Theory are presented in the back matter, but not within the text itself. Readers will enjoy the cheerful and often funny illustrations, but may get wrapped up in the baking analogy and miss the whole point. VERDICT Not recommended for purchase. For a simple but informative book about the subject, consider Marion Dane Bauer's The Stuff of Stars. Louie Lauer