The In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen

Welcome to Cobble Street! Meet Lily, Rosie, and Tess, the three heroines of a new series by Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant and acclaimed artist Wendy Anderson Halperin. Lily wants to be a poet. Tess wants to act on Broadway. And Rosie wants a little cottage with flowers by the door. But for right now, the three cousins are happy staying with their Aunt Lucy on Cobble Street. It's summer, school's out, and the cousins have a project -- a cookie company! They deliver fresh-baked cookies and meet a customer who has a crush on Aunt Lucy. But he's too shy to tell her. How will these two ever get together? It's up to the cousins to make romance bloom on Cobble Street!

Grade 2-4?Nine-year-old cousins Lily, Rosie, and Tess are roommates in their aunt's home while their parents tour with a ballet company for a year. In A Little Shopping, the girls build a dollhouse replica of their aunt's flower shop to surprise her. In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen tells how the cousins decide to form a cookie company and meet a number of people in the community during their brief business adventure. Subplots involve playing cupid between their aunt and a customer and putting on a theatrical show for newfound friends. These titles fill the gap between easy readers and beginning chapter books. Halperin's soft pencil drawings scattered throughout add detail and just the right touch of fun to the stories. Sweet and refreshing, these books beg for a plate of freshly baked cookies and a comfortable reading chair.?Pam Hopper Webb, Sandpoint Community Christian School, ID
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Three creative cousins bring can-do spirit and goodhearted fun to this new chapter book series from Newbery Medalist Rylant. Nine-year-olds Lily, Rosie and Tess are bunking with their Aunt Lucy for a whole year while their parents?ballet dancers all?tour the world. They've made a cozy haven in Aunt Lucy's attic where they can each enjoy their favorite pursuits and dream up fun things to entertain themselves. Starting a cookie company is the first order of business in In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen, and the girls manage to play match-maker for Aunt Lucy and befriend a 90-year-old neighbor on her birthday while delivering batches of cinnamon crinkles. And in A Little Shopping the girls show their flair for arts and crafts when they whip up something special for Aunt Lucy. Rylant's confident and sweet-natured heroines are the kind of girls-next-door that anyone would want to know better. Her chipper tone and succinct, yet open-ended stories will encourage her target readership to come up with their own creative projects. Halperin's (Once Upon a Company) generous sprinkling of cozy, pale-hued pencil-and-watercolor illustrations throughout capture a warm family dynamic and provide energetic expressions for a friendly cast. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.