COOKIES

The great sage Cookie Monster intoned that, “C is for Cookie, that’s good enough for me.” Rosenthal and Dyer take that adage and run with it: “COOPERATE means, How about you add the chips while I stir?” and “PATIENT” means waiting nicely for them to finish baking. “RESPECT” means offering grandma the first cookie, and “REGRET” involves wishing one had not eaten so many. Don’t miss the half-cookie riff on optimism and pessimism, either. There are indeed lessons, but they are neither didactic nor humorless. Dyer’s irresistible cast of characters includes children of many ethnicities and a raft of animal buddies in the same world-space (the horse putting on his trench coat and asking a little Asian girl to hold his cookie until he returns—now that’s “TRUSTWORTHY”). Beautifully rendered kitchens and streetscapes, gardens and backyards in sun-kissed colors pile on the charm. The last line falls a little flat, but that’s balanced by the last image of a bespectacled Yorkshire terrier with a plate of star cookies, a pile of books and a star-spangled nightshirt. (Picture book. 4-8)