If I were a baker, I would make caramels for my big sister. I would tell her that we should be like caramels—tough and hard to chew. When other kids make fun of us or bully us, we won’t be afraid. If I were a baker, I would make a chimney cake for Grandma, thanking her for always giving me the warmest hugs, cooking delicious meals for me, and wrapping me in her love.
Though Yi-Fei’s parents are not always by her side, she is surrounded by the loving care of her family. From an early age, she dreams of giving something back, imagining herself as a baker making desserts filled with love and gratitude. As she puts it, “What I do know is that the day I become a real baker, I will make the biggest strawberry cake and invite the whole family to eat this cake, so that we can all be together.”
Since 2004, the CommonWealth Education Foundation has launched the Hope Reading Program, providing free, high-quality reading resources to approximately 200 rural schools each year. The Little Writer Illustrated Story Competition, an extension of this program, encourages children from these communities to share their voices through creative storytelling. In 2021, Yi-Fei Jin, a fourth-grade student, received a Judges’ Recommendation Award in the Middle Grades Picture Book category for her illustrated work If I Want to Be a Baker. This later became the foundation for The Biggest Strawberry Cake.