EMILY SNOOK

A small child learns that persistence pays off.

Grandpa has cooked with Emily since she was 2. He urges her to enter a cooking contest for kids but fails to notice the fine print: “Advanced Competition.” Emily is waist-high to the others but “tall with ambition.” The contest is irresponsibly unmonitored: She’s provided with inadequate leftover tools, must wear a too-big apron that she trips over, and is left at eye level with a boiling pot. Disasters befall each prescribed dish; improbably, the roux catches fire inside the pot. Emily is ready to quit until she spots Grandpa’s balloon with its slogan: “Believe in Yourself!” Somehow she has time to clean up, build a stool out of stale bread, and cook three new dishes, including a 10-minute sorbet, using “secret” spices she finds on a low shelf. Of course, she wins the gold cup. The other contestants instantly switch from sneering to magnanimity. The story is inspiring, if predictable, with an implausibly sunny outcome; the four-beat verses and cheery color art are palatable. Emily has brown skin and short curly black hair in two yellow-tied side-bunches, while Grandpa is brown-skinned and bald, with side tufts of gray hair. The other contestants are racially diverse.

Seasoning with bright colors helps balance the added sugar in this can-do confection.