Goodies, Inc.: The Cookie Baker by Monica Wallington

EARLY IN THE MORNING MR. COOKIE BAKER GETS READY TO MAKE COOKIES.

As the sun rises over the town, Mr. Cookie Baker is already in his snug cookie shop, attired in his crisp red-checked apron and chef's hat, with his ingredients--butter, sugar, flour, vanilla flavoring, spice boxes, and eggs--arranged around him as he consults his recipe book. He assembles the tools of his trade, too--graduated measuring cups and spoons, whisks, beaters, scrapers, spatulas, and a big red spoon to stir up all his ingredients.

With the sweet-smelling dough on a floured board, he pulls out his rolling pin and rolls out the dough just so and sets out his collection of cookie cutters. He cuts out stars and hearts, bears and bunnies, cats and chickens, and even Santas and angels, and with his spatula lifts them carefully onto cookie sheets, and pops them into his big ovens. Soon the cookie store is filled with the appetizing aroma of cookies baking.

It's still early when Mr. Cookie Baker takes the cookies out of the oven, perfectly browned, decorates some of them with icing and some with sprinkles, and transfers them to the cooling shelves behind the counter in his cozy shop, now filled with the delicious smells of warm cookies.

And his shop is soon to be filled with hungry cookie lovers.

NOW HE IS READY FOR THE CUSTOMERS.

HERE COME THE HUNGRY CHILDREN!

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And the cookies soon vanish into festive boxes, paper sacks, and happy mouths, in Monica Wallington's joyful story, Mr. Cookie Baker (Board Book Edition) (Dutton Childrens Books/Penguin).

What's not to like about a a cookie shop presided over by a rosy, smiling baker? Author-illustrator Monica Wallington has a jolly story of sweets and kids together in a cheery shop with red-and-white checked tile floors and a smiling Mr. Baker in his red-checked apron. For toddlers learning shapes, for preschoolers prepping for a field trip to a bakery, for emergent readers and precocious cooks, this simple story with its simple line drawings and bright colors is a charming choice for young readers, with a sly suggestion of holidays to come. And of course, nobody doesn't like cookies!

Once Upon a Spring Break! The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue by Karina Yan Glaser

When her phone rang, Mom weaved through kids, pets and stacks of books. The Vanderbeekers heard her say, "Really?" and "That would be wonderful!"

"That was Perch Magazine!" Mom reported. "They want to feature me and my business in their October issue! There will be a whole magazine spread about my cookies. They're going to send a photographer to the brownstone!"

Mom was going to be a celebrity!

The Vanderbeeker kids' calendar for spring break had already been full, with Isa's violin audition for the community orchestra, constructing Oliver's tree house with Uncle Arthur, and Mom's birthday on Saturday. Now their schedule is interrupted by Mom's interview and the nightly appearance of homeless animals left at their back door--first five tiny kittens, then two guinea pigs, a long-eared dog, and six chickens.

Even the Vanderbeekers, who already have a fat cat named George Washington, a dog named Franz, and a rabbit named Paganini, know they can't keep them all, but when all the animal shelters turn out to be full, the kids put up giveaway flyers all over their neighborhood. There are no takers, but the Vanderbeekers soon receive a fine notice of $450 for unauthorized postings. Trying to get back in her good graces, the kids stay up all night to paint the living room for Mom's big photo shoot, only to discover that what looked like lovely shade of rose at night is a downright scary fuchsia by day.

And then things really get serious, when a grumpy health inspector makes a surprise visit to inspect the premises. Apparently, a Home Processors' License requires a separate kitchen for products for sale and forbids any animals on the premises. An apartment with two dogs, six cats, two guinea pigs and six feather-shedding chickens is way beyond the pale. Mom realizes she's been operating an illegal baking business and sadly drags out her old accounting textbooks to prepare to go back to her former job.

Obviously the Vanderbeeker kids must find a new place for their mother's promising career in the bakery business, not to mention finding homes for their new menagerie. But the upbeat Vanderbeekers take on the job with their usual elan and find a fitting joint solution to both problems in the third volume in Karina Yan Glaser's just-published The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). Like her two earlier best-sellers, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (1) and The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden (2) (read reviews here) have been hailed for their return to family stories of adventurous and resourceful children in a diverse, but close-knit community where they have free range. Often likened to such family-centric classics as Eleanor Estes' The Moffats, Bevery Cleary's Beezus and Ramona, and Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks,. the Vanderbeekers are like a breath of fresh air among fiction for middle readers, a close bunch of siblings who rely on each other and their neighborhood relationships to make their own way in solving problems. Authentic and charming, these contemporary stories of Isa, Jessie, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney are realistic and yet funny, lively and hopeful, and as sweet and satisfying as one of Mom's chocolate sea salt caramel cookies.

Watch for the promised fourth book in this popular series, The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found.