The Secret Cookie Club by Martha Freeman (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Secret Cookie Club by Martha Freeman
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-1046-5 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-1048-9 $10.99 R Gr. 4-6
The four middle-grade girls in Flowerpot Cabin at Moonlight Ranch Summer Camp are not getting along—until they must work together to make cookies. While the cookie-making doesn’t fix everything, it helps, and by the end of summer Grace, Emma, Olivia, and Lucy decide to stay in touch by taking turns sending each other cookies. The cookie, email, and letter exchanges allow each girl to narrate a section that elaborates on a particular problem she is facing and its resolution; Grace, for example, is having some difficulty getting along with a bossy classmate and Emma has misplaced some important family photos. Although the characterizations are a bit, well, cookie-cutter and the plot is somewhat contrived, the multicultural girls (Grace is half Singaporean, Emma is Jewish, Grace is African-American and affluent, Lucy is white and poor) are still an engaging crew and the variety of issues and identities ensures that many readers will find a connection point with at least one of the characters. The smooth writing and quick pacing make the pages fly by, as does Freeman’s clever technique of leaving each girl’s story unfinished until her letter to the next girl clears up loose ends. Particularly touching is Emma’s letter to Olivia about her older brother who died before Emma was born. Hand this to the BFFs who aren’t quite ready for Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (BCCB 12/01). Four cookie recipes are included.
