Mouse and Spoon Book Series by Cynthia Rylant illustrated by Janna Mattia

When I saw this book cover on social media I was intrigued. I am a huge huge huge fan of Cynthia Rylant. She writes absolutely PERFECT little stories for children who are just beginning to develop reading confidence. Series such as Mr Putter and Tabby; Henry and Mudge; Annie and Snowball; The High-Rise Private Eye; The Lighthouse Family and now Mouse and Spoon.

I started exploring this series by reading book 2 - Owlets and Tarts - on my Kindle. Sadly, may be a little difficult to find here in Australia but they are fairly new so you can order them. I found them listed at Readings in Melbourne for just AUS$13.

Blurb: Mom and Dad Owl are exhausted—their three little owlets refuse to go to sleep. They need pillow tarts for their babies, and quickly! Will Ginger, Tom, and Piper at the Mouse and Spoon Bakery be able to help?

Here is the full review from the School Library Journal:

A long-reigning master of fiction for emerging readers, Rylant nails it again with this sweet new series about a bakery owned by a family of mice. In this installment, the mice are tasked with creating the perfect confection for owl parents who have been getting no sleep thanks to their three newly hatched owlets. The mice sift, roll, and knead until they have baked “three perfect Pillow Tarts” on which the owlets finally fall asleep. Rylant crafts a tale that is engaging without sacrificing decodability, and Mattia’s pastel-hued illustrations have a timeless quality that suits the story perfectly. The bedraggled owl parents add a touch of slapstick humor, and readers are sure to root for this trio of feisty mice. ­

The Elephants Birthday blurb: The baker mice are in for a surprise when an elephant places a large birthday order for over 100 pound cakes--plus some banana bread for her monkey friends! Can the little mice fill this very big order?  Read the review

Rabbit Tea blurb: A rabbit is having a tea party and needs lots of treats! Will Ginger, Piper, and Tom at the Mouse and Spoon Bakery be able to bake enough carrot cakes in time?

A Porcupine Wedding blurb: Ginger, Piper, and Tom of the Mouse and Spoon Bakery have a very important job: making lots of super sticky buns for a porcupine wedding!

Cynthia Rylant is an American librarian and author, who was born on 6th June 1954. She has written over 100 children’s books.

The Baker by the Sea by Paula White

We have fish merchants, and smokers that smoke the fish, blacksmiths and basketmakers, butchers and bakers. There are cosy cafes and tiny shops that sell everything you might need. 

Every aspect of life in this village revolves around the sea. There are fishermen, net makers, sail makers, boat builders, coopers who make the barrels for the pickled fish and young girls who process each catch ready for pickling. 

"The sea is the beating heart of all he we do."

But this boy's father is not a fisherman. He is the town baker. The boy is not sure this is as important as being a fisherman but his father explains how everyone enjoys his baking - the boat builders buy bacon butties from the cafe, the fisher-girls enjoy piping hot buns to warm their fingers, and out at sea the fishermen dip their biscuits in their hot tea.

"I look at my father and feel proud. For without the bread, buns and biscuits, ... the people of the village could not go on as they do. When I am older I am going to be a baker, just like my father, in the village by the sea."

Bonus - there is a recipe at the back of the book for hot coconut buns - yum.

The Baker by the sea was short listed in 2023 for the Klaus Flugge Prize.

The Baker by the Sea has wonderful illustrations done in black and white pencil with pale blue spot colour. 

Relying upon a limited palette of greys and tonal blues for the most part (except for the warm yellow glow of the baker’s oven), her visual and written narrative crosses over the village, passing over the bustle of residents’ hard-working day-to-day lives and its centring around the fishing trade. Books for Keeps

The Baker by the Sea celebrates those small-village communities in which everyone worked hard together and looked after each other. It is quite poignant that the village then has been lost to the elements but perhaps readers can take something from the idea that something special happens when communities come together. Books for Keeps

I highly recommend The Baker by the Sea for your school library. Read it for Father's Day; read it for the junior history topic Life in the Past; read if your class are talking about workers in the community; but most of all just read it for pure enjoyment. 

The perfect companion book would be:

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart illustrated by David Small

It just goes to show there is nothing new under the sun as they say. I was talking to a fellow children's literature enthusiast about The Secret Sky Garden - a new book I loved reading and she mentioned The Gardener.  The Gardener was published in 1997 and it follows the same theme.  The Gardener won a Caldecott Honor in 1998 and YES it is still in print.

Times are hard. It is 1935 and Papa has no work, Mama has no work and so young Lydia Grace Finch is sent to live for a short time with Uncle Jim in the city. She will work in his bakery. Through a series of letters Lydia 'talks' firstly to Uncle Jim and then over the following months to her family. Lydia is a keen gardener but in the city everything looks dull and grey. Lydia is an observant girl. She spies some empty window boxes.

Lydia starts small and plants out the window boxes. Gradually we see flowers appearing in the Bakery. Then Lydia finds a secret place and she is able to extend her planting using cracked tea cups and old cake tins as flower pots.  She is desperate to make Uncle Jim smile and she hopes her surprise will work.  As the seasons change so does the neighborhood. Flowers appear on balconies and in shops. Finally the big day arrives. June 4th is a holiday. Lydia makes a path for Uncle Jim to follow up to her secret place which is on the roof on the building.  I'm not sure Uncle Jim smiles, even though he should, but he does show his happiness and appreciation by baking a splendid cake! In the farewell scene it is clear he truly does care for little Lydia.

You can see the illustrations from this book on the publisher Macmillan web site. Here is a review by Elizabeth Bird in the School Library Journal and here is a detailed review with more story details.  I found two videos of this book - with an older group of students it would be interesting to compare the narrators. 1. Kathleen Pelley  2. Bob Franklin

Small's marvelous pictures show the city in all its gritty variety- -pushcarts, pigeons, packing crates, fire escapes, awnings, nuns,bums, and dogs—and the scrawny, smiling bakery cat, Otis. Kirkus

Here is another famous book by Sarah Stewart The Library.

The Bakery of Happiness by Ian Beck

Recently there was a discussion (on a Facebook forum) about the easy reading series Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Bites.  I especially adore the Nibbles titles because they bridge the gap providing terrific stories for newly independent readers. I am quite passionate about this group of children. A couple of years ago I discovered another excellent series - Little Gems. These come from the UK and fit somewhere between Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Bites. Some of the very best UK children's book creator names can be found when you peruse this series. You will see names such as Michael Morpurgo, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Eoin Colfer, Jeremy Strong, Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Dick King-Smith and many more.

Today I picked up The Bakery of Happiness by Ian Beck.  Ian also wrote The First Third Wish for the Little Gems series (Barrington Stoke). On this blog I have also talked about Out for the Count and The Smile.

The Bakery of Happiness is set in Paris. Each day the baker Paul makes "crusty baguettes, rustic loaves, croissants, pains aux raisins and pains au chocolate". Paul starts work very early. At 7am each day Marie arrives. She pats the dog Gracie and welcomes the school children by name. Each child leaves the shop "as if they had wings on their shoes and were walking on air."

One day a customer arrives - a mysterious stranger. He hears the voice of Marie and is entranced. He asks her to join his opera company. Marie leaves the shop. Paul is left alone wishing he had had the courage to ask Marie out to see a movie. Now it seems it may be too late.

I suggest you head off to your nearest bakery. Pick up some warm croissants, come home and settle down to read this book - it truly is a little gem! And as a bonus the illustrations are filled with light and warmth. One more thing - this is truly a love story and that surely will make you smile.

You can read the first chapter on the publisher web site. The Little Gems were first published in 2012 and there are now more than thirty titles in the series.