Small Words. Growing Confidence. The Story Behind My Cake Talks
Imagine a child bringing you a drawing they have just finished. The page is covered in colour. The sun is bigger than the house, and a tree might be floating above the clouds. They hold it up and wait.
The words we say next may seem small to us. To that child, they could be enough to send them running for another sheet of paper.
How many words from our own childhood have stayed with us? A teacher noticing a talent. A parent finding something worth encouraging in an uncertain first attempt.
The person who said them may have forgotten the moment entirely. We still remember how it made us feel.
That is the feeling at the heart of My Cake Talks, written by Emirati author Shamma Al Marzooqi, illustrated by Ahmed Helmy, and published by Ajyaal. The story begins in a kitchen, where a young girl is preparing her favourite orange cake when she hears some unexpected sounds. We will leave you to discover what happens next.
What draws us to this story is the difference a few words can make to the way a child sees themselves. They might notice a skill they had overlooked, take pride in their effort, or find the courage to try again.
Sometimes, a child needs someone to notice the details everyone else has passed over and say, “I saw what you did.”
This book has another story, too. One that begins beyond the kitchen.
My Cake Talks was selected among the winning works in the first First Edition programme, launched by the National Media Authority to support Emirati writers in publishing their first books. Shamma’s story was one of eleven winning titles chosen from approximately seventy-three submissions. Working with local publishers, the programme supports the journey through editing, design, printing and distribution.
Take a moment to think about what “first edition” can mean to a writer.
A name on a cover. An idea that once lived in someone’s imagination becoming a book a child can carry home. Then open, grow attached to, and ask to read again.
At Ajyaal, that journey from an idea to a reader matters to us. In publishing Shamma’s story, we see a lovely connection between the book’s message and its own journey: what can happen when someone believes in what you have to offer and gives you the opportunity to share it.
And because wonder is part of how we first fall in love with books, My Cake Talks has something else waiting between its pages. A clever mirror illusion completes the illustrations, creating a surprising sense of depth. You open a page, look, and then look again. The book invites you a little closer. There is something to discover.
We like to imagine that moment in a reader’s home. A child opens the book, discovers what the mirror does, and calls someone over to share the surprise. Two people lean over a page, and a conversation begins.
Perhaps reading together offers us adults a gentle reminder, too. To pause and notice what our children are making. The effort, the care, the imagination. The small step that took more courage than we realised.
Every day gives us chances to say something worth carrying into tomorrow.
Small words. Growing confidence.
And this cake has a story to tell.