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Cookie Queen: How One Girl Started TATE'S BAKE SHOP®
Perfect for dessert lovers and budding bakers, this is the true story of a girl who followed her dream to make the perfect chocolate-chip cookie--and, one day, founded world-renowned TATE'S BAKE SHOP®. Original cookie recipe included!
Eleven-year-old Kathleen King was positively obsessed with baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie. She experimented over and over and over with different recipes--less flour, more butter, longer baking time--until she got it just right.
Customers flocked to her family's farm stand on Long Island for Kathleen's enormous, buttery chocolate chip cookies. And when she grew up, Kathleen started a cookie company called TATE'S BAKE SHOP®. TATE'S grew into a multi-million-dollar empire and, today, they are a household name and their cookies are sold all over the country!
Cookie Queen is the delicious true story of how a little girl's dream turned into an enormous cookie empire.
Eleven-year-old Kathleen King was positively obsessed with baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie. She experimented over and over and over with different recipes--less flour, more butter, longer baking time--until she got it just right.
Customers flocked to her family's farm stand on Long Island for Kathleen's enormous, buttery chocolate chip cookies. And when she grew up, Kathleen started a cookie company called TATE'S BAKE SHOP®. TATE'S grew into a multi-million-dollar empire and, today, they are a household name and their cookies are sold all over the country!
Cookie Queen is the delicious true story of how a little girl's dream turned into an enormous cookie empire.
40 pages, Library Binding
Published July 18, 2023
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 6, 2023
Adorable story and love that there is even a recipe at the end!
November 27, 2023
At the age of eleven, Kathleen King had made a deal with her dad. She could sell her chocolate chip cookies at their family’s farm stand and keep all her profits to buy clothes for school. Kathleen’s cookies were great and sold well at their farm stand, but she wanted to make the BEST cookies. And to Kathleen, the BEST cookies were thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies, not the soft gooey ones that everyone else was selling.
Kathleen kept tweaking her recipe, adding more flour, more eggs, or more salt. Until one day she had the idea to add more salted butter. Plus she made her cookies the size of a small plate. That was the magic formula for Kathleen’s thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies. Customers stood in line for Kathleen’s cookies that summer and many summers after.
At the age of twenty, Kathleen opened her first bakery and twenty years later, started Tate’s Bake Shop, named after her father. Tate’s Bake Shop cookies come in all kinds of flavors and are sold in grocery stores all over the United States. Kathleen’s story of perseverance in finding the perfect cookie recipe reminds kids that whatever you dream you can do, you can achieve it if you work hard and keep trying.
Kathleen’s story reminds me of kids who sell bracelets at craft shows or Cricut designs on shirts and cups. They have a dream of being their own boss and work hard to make it happen. The illustrations allow kids to see themselves as Kathleen, as a child working hard to help out her parents while also getting up early to make another batch of cookies. Readers will be delighted by a special surprise at the end of the book, a recipe for Kathleen & Tate’s Molasses Cookies, the first cookie she baked with her father. I can’t wait to try them as well.
Kathleen kept tweaking her recipe, adding more flour, more eggs, or more salt. Until one day she had the idea to add more salted butter. Plus she made her cookies the size of a small plate. That was the magic formula for Kathleen’s thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies. Customers stood in line for Kathleen’s cookies that summer and many summers after.
At the age of twenty, Kathleen opened her first bakery and twenty years later, started Tate’s Bake Shop, named after her father. Tate’s Bake Shop cookies come in all kinds of flavors and are sold in grocery stores all over the United States. Kathleen’s story of perseverance in finding the perfect cookie recipe reminds kids that whatever you dream you can do, you can achieve it if you work hard and keep trying.
Kathleen’s story reminds me of kids who sell bracelets at craft shows or Cricut designs on shirts and cups. They have a dream of being their own boss and work hard to make it happen. The illustrations allow kids to see themselves as Kathleen, as a child working hard to help out her parents while also getting up early to make another batch of cookies. Readers will be delighted by a special surprise at the end of the book, a recipe for Kathleen & Tate’s Molasses Cookies, the first cookie she baked with her father. I can’t wait to try them as well.
September 18, 2023
With its lively Adobe Photoshop illustrations featuring a determined girl, her supportive father, and several--yes, several--batches of cookies, even some of the endpapers with a bite or two taken from them, this picture book has all the ingredients needed for it to appeal to youngsters. Not only is the story of Kathleen King inspiring, but she serves as a great example of the rewards of persistence and being willing to take risks. The story begins when she's 11 and baking cookies to see at the family's farm stand. In search of a way to bake the best chocolate cookie ever, Kathleen tried various variations, adding and subtracting ingredients, until she finally came up with a winner. The proceeds from her baking sales went for clothing and eventually a car, and then she opened her own bakery at 20. Later, she put her cookies on the market in grocery stores all across the United States, even, to my surprise, at the local Safeway in Idaho where I shop. The text and artwork effectively depict the methodical way Kathleen approached her task and the joy she felt when she succeeded. How cool for young readers to have this story featuring a girl who found her life's mission at a very young age! I just wish there had been some photos of Kathleen, her family, and her bakery. It would have been nice to have a warm cookie to munch on while reading the book too. Instead, readers will have to remain content with a recipe for molasses cookies. Warning! Do NOT read this picture book right before lunch. It's sure to make readers long for their next meal or dessert all that sooner.
July 29, 2023
If you have ever wondered how those delicious TATE’S BAKE SHOP© cookies came to be, here’s a picture book biography to fill in the dots. Kathleen loves to bake, and has a deal with her dad: if she bakes cookies and sells them at the family’s farmstand over the summer, then she can keep the money to buy herself new clothes for school. She experiments with recipes until she comes up with the “the best cookies ever.” They’re thin and crispy and big, and soon, word spreads and customers came from all over to buy Kathleen’s cookies.
I liked seeing Kathleen’s experimentation, with “a little less flour,” “more chocolate chips,” “two fewer eggs” – it sends the message that trying and failing is part of the road to success. Readers will get a clear idea of how a business succeeds, and a note at the end adds more information about how baking cookies at home became TATE’S BAKE SHOP©. Digital artwork depicts an idealized view of a farmstand. A big plus: there’s a recipe at the end!
By the end, though, it felt like the name of the business, with it’s all caps and copyright symbol, was bandied about enough to feel like an advertisement.
I liked seeing Kathleen’s experimentation, with “a little less flour,” “more chocolate chips,” “two fewer eggs” – it sends the message that trying and failing is part of the road to success. Readers will get a clear idea of how a business succeeds, and a note at the end adds more information about how baking cookies at home became TATE’S BAKE SHOP©. Digital artwork depicts an idealized view of a farmstand. A big plus: there’s a recipe at the end!
By the end, though, it felt like the name of the business, with it’s all caps and copyright symbol, was bandied about enough to feel like an advertisement.
August 22, 2023
As the story of a young girl whose cookies became the impetus for establishing a national distribution cookie brand - Tate's®️ - the story is impressive. But this is more than a cookie success story. This is a story of a hard working farming family. As farmers, they own their own roadside vegetable stand selling their own crops.
Kathleen, even as a young girl, gets up really early and has kitchen chores - cooking, cleaning, etc. She also is enterprising and cooks up a few cookies to sell at their roadside stand. She is creative and loves to experiment with her cookies trying to get what she considers the perfect chocolate chip cookie. And she succeeds.
Her father recognizing her ambition tells her she can have all the earnings from her cookie sales to buy new clothes for school in the Fall. And so it begins.....
A story of talent, ingenuity, perseverance, and success.
I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.
Kathleen, even as a young girl, gets up really early and has kitchen chores - cooking, cleaning, etc. She also is enterprising and cooks up a few cookies to sell at their roadside stand. She is creative and loves to experiment with her cookies trying to get what she considers the perfect chocolate chip cookie. And she succeeds.
Her father recognizing her ambition tells her she can have all the earnings from her cookie sales to buy new clothes for school in the Fall. And so it begins.....
A story of talent, ingenuity, perseverance, and success.
I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.
March 28, 2024
First sentence: It was very early in the morning when Kathleen stepped into the kitchen. Kathleen was only eleven, but each morning she made her own breakfast and packed her own lunch for school--and when her parents worked late--she whipped up dinner for her brothers and sister. Kathleen enjoyed cooking, but more than anything, she loved to bake.
Premise/plot: This is a picture book biography of Kathleen King the founder of Tate's Bake Shop. This picture book celebrates baking--specifically chocolate chip cookies--hard work and entrepreneurship. It is the story of how she kept working and working and working to improve her recipe until it was perfectly perfect and that consistently. She sold many, many, many cookies along the way.
My thoughts: Who doesn't enjoy reading about cookies? This one could pair with many other books about cookies. I do see this one as being for younger elementary grades. It would be so tempting to pair this one with a snack.
Premise/plot: This is a picture book biography of Kathleen King the founder of Tate's Bake Shop. This picture book celebrates baking--specifically chocolate chip cookies--hard work and entrepreneurship. It is the story of how she kept working and working and working to improve her recipe until it was perfectly perfect and that consistently. She sold many, many, many cookies along the way.
My thoughts: Who doesn't enjoy reading about cookies? This one could pair with many other books about cookies. I do see this one as being for younger elementary grades. It would be so tempting to pair this one with a snack.
October 7, 2023
At the young age of eleven, Kathleen would get up early, make her own breakfast and pack her lunch for school. But most importantly she loved to bake. Her family lived on a farm and would sell their farm goods at a stand. She made a deal with her dad to sell cookies on summer break to buy her clothes for school. Kathleen wanted to make the perfect cookie. She tried over and over by mixing more of some ingredients and less of others until she had the perfect thin crispy cookie. All she had to do now was sell them and hope that people loved them as much as she did. How would she do it?
Author Kathleen King is the cookie queen and founder of Tate’s Bake Shop. Her story is delightfully told with colorful illustrations. Young readers can be inspired and even bake these famous cookies themselves with the recipe found in the back.
Author Kathleen King is the cookie queen and founder of Tate’s Bake Shop. Her story is delightfully told with colorful illustrations. Young readers can be inspired and even bake these famous cookies themselves with the recipe found in the back.
October 10, 2023
Cookie Queen is a highly engaging non-fiction narrative of young Kathleen King's efforts to make the best chocolate chip cookies in her area to sell at her father's farm stand. Her recipe adjustments fail (in her opinion), but lead her to keep trying. The emotional and practical support she receives from her father is evident, clearly helping her healthy response to failure. It is her persistence and the example of real-life child-agency that make Cookie Queen an especially satisfying read. In fact, King and Sichol craft a tale where the words themselves fade away and the reader finds herself at Kathleen's side in the kitchen and on the farm. Expressive and fun illustrations add to the magic - just look at that adorable cat on the cover!
Cookie Queen is all that and a bag of chips - chocolate chips!
Cookie Queen is all that and a bag of chips - chocolate chips!
July 23, 2023
This is a fabulous new picture book autobiography by Kathleen King (and her collaborator Lowley Sichol) who tells her story of how she started the Tate's Bake Shop a nationwide cookie company. King's story starts when she is motivated to make the best cookies she can to sell at her family's farmstand. The reader sees how she kept experimenting with her recipe to improve her product. Eventually the cookies take off and King starts a company to sell her cookies. The book includes one of her recipes for readers to try out. It is a great inspirational story about a girl that had a dream and then worked very hard to make her dream come true.
December 30, 2023
11yo Kathleen gets up early and makes cookies. She wants to have them ready in time to sell at her dad Tate's farm stand, and they are good, but they aren't perfect. So every day Kathleen changes her recipe a little bit - she wants the perfect cookie that everyone will buy.
A darling story about perseverance and patience. Kaulitzki's illustrations are cute - I can't believe she made all those different cookie recipes a bit different in her illustrations too. Includes a cookie recipe (not her famous chocolate chip cookie - sigh) " Kathleen is white
Cross-posted to http://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com
A darling story about perseverance and patience. Kaulitzki's illustrations are cute - I can't believe she made all those different cookie recipes a bit different in her illustrations too. Includes a cookie recipe (not her famous chocolate chip cookie - sigh) " Kathleen is white
Cross-posted to http://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com
September 2, 2023
4 stars
Child entrepreneur stories are always a good thing
Child entrepreneur stories are always a good thing
September 23, 2023
Good story
November 23, 2025
A cute picture book about a girls quest for the perfect cookie and how she grew up to start Tate's Bake Shop.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews