Cosmo’s Flying Funnel Cakes | Dedicated Review

Book Review of Cosmo’s Flying Funnel Cakes
Sponsored* | All opinions are our own
The Children’s Book Review

Cosmo’s Flying Funnel Cakes

Written by Allyson Jannotta

Illustrated by Kathy Lee

Ages: 4-6 | 40 Pages

Publisher: Allyson Jannotta (2024) | ISBN: 9798991172301

What to Expect: Family, tradition, magic, food, and physics.

Cosmo is pretty sure his mom has the coolest job on the planet – working for the family business selling funnel cakes at the state fair. The whole family has a role to play, from frying batter and topping cakes with sugar to cleaning and resupplying the stall. Cosmo really wants to help out, too—but making funnel cakes is too dangerous for a small boy. So, Cosmo asks Lily, the fair magician, to help him find a way to be part of the family business, too. Lily teaches him an excellent trick—Cosmo can make the funnel cakes fly through the air with a spinning plate trick! Thanks to Lily, Cosmo learns that even a very small boy like him can be part of the family tradition with a bit of imagination.

It can be challenging to feel left out when it feels like everyone else around you is involved in something meaningful. In this colorful picture book, readers will meet determined, creative Cosmo, whose eagerness to be involved in his family’s traditional business is both endearing and relatable. The story teaches important lessons about teamwork, preparation, and thinking outside of the box, all set against the colorful backdrop of a state fair. The vivid digital illustrations add a touch of magic to the everyday behind-the-scenes processes of cooking, cleaning, and setting up a booth, while an informational page at the end of the story introduces readers to the physics behind the magic of the spinning plate trick. 

Cosmo’s Flying Funnel Cakes is a delightful blend of magic and science, inviting readers to think beyond the obvious in their everyday lives. 

Buy the Book

About the Author

Allyson Jannotta is a picture book author, an elementary and middle school substitute teacher, a life coach and a former News Producer and Script Supervisor for tv and film. Her favorite role is mom to Cosmo, who is her muse for this book and is at the time of this publication, a college student.  

She is part owner of a funnel cake booth at The State Fair of Texas, a family business that started by her mom and sister in 1989. She met her husband Tony at the booth in 1999 and it is the inspiration of this book. There is a picture on a menu board of Cosmo at the booth and a customer asked “How did he make the funnel cake float?” because of the way he was holding it in the picture. And just like magic, the idea of Cosmo’s Flying Funnel Cakes was born. When she became an empty nester, Allyson wrote 12 other picture books in one year. While this is the first to be published, she promises many more books are on the way! 

When her son, Cosmo was a baby, she was a founding board member of The Tulsa Children’s Museum, which is now the incredible Discovery Lab!  When her son was in elementary school she started a school garden through the PTA, became PTA president twice (elementary and middle school) and she started her son’s elementary school World of Work program. 

Allyson occasionally will tell personal moth-style stories on stage to adults with First Person Live in the Chicago area. But her true love is to read picture books to children. Her favorite time of day when her son was little was at night when they could curl up before bedtime and read and look at picture books.

If you want Allyson to read her books and share her stories to a group of kids (young or old), you can contact her through her website at allysonjannotta.com.

Dedicated Reviews allow authors and illustrators to gain prompt visibility for their work. This is a sponsored*, non-biased review of Cosmo’s Flying Funnel Cakes. Learn more about getting a book review …