The Gingerbread Girl and The Ninjabread Man are both a creative spinoff of the traditional gingerbread man tale. We read both of these delightful books when we we’re together for for Christmas. Then we made cookies! Gingerbread books and cookies go together so well!
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Favorite gingerbread books
When I started reading aloud online to my grandkids my niece told me we needed to read The Ninjabread Man by C.J. Leigh. It was a favorite of her two young boys. We loved it and read it many times. We also read The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst. They can be read year round even though we often associate gingerbread with the holidays.
The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
The lonely old woman and lonely old man who lost their Gingerbread Boy to the sly fox decide to try one more time to make a gingerbread cookie. This time they make a Gingerbread Girl. They dress her with lots of sweet candy and use licorice whips for hair. The cookie hears the old woman and old man talking about the fox and how he tricked their Gingerbread Boy. When the Gingerbread Girl comes out of the oven she has a plan to outsmart the fox! If you enjoy this book look for the sequel: The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers.
The Ninjabread Man by C J Leigh
A Sensei training four ninjas decides to make them a special treat of ninjabread. He carefully shapes the dough into a tiny sword, throwing stars and a ninja warrior. When he opens the oven door out jumps a Ninjabread man! He has to try and outsmart a Ninja Bear, Ninja Snake, Ninja Mouse and a cunning Ninja Fox. This is a fun action packed story! It even has the recipe at the end for the Sensei’s Ninjabread cookies.
Making gingerbread cookies
When I found out all three of my grandchildren were coming to our house for Christmas I decided we needed to make ninjabread men and gingerbread girls. The Ninjabread Man book includes a recipe at the end, but I decided to simplify and bought a box of gingerbread cookie mix and icing in the tubes. I guess a lot of kids love The Ninjabread Man book because you can buy ninjabread men cookie cutters. I bought mine at Target a few weeks before Christmas. Luckily Amazon sells several different sets of ninjabread men cookie cutters year round.
Gingerbread books and cookies: a fun creative activity!
We read both gingerbread books then we made cookies. I mixed the dough ahead of time so it was ready to go. I think making the cookies was more fun than eating the cookies. It was fun to see how different they all turned out. If you don’t have ninjabread men cookie cutters you could use a traditional gingerbread man cookie cutter and adjust his arms and legs to look like a ninja. Children have great imaginations and will come up with their own ideas for making unique gingerbread cookies!
Do you need more great books or fun read aloud ideas?
I have lots of books and great ideas to share with you here!
To help you get started I have a list of 15 great read-aloud picture books you can download for free.
