PINKY’S SWEET TOOTH

Thanks to irrepressible optimism, clever publicity, and true love for her line of work, a shopowner turns a failing business around in this child’s-eye view of Enterprise At Work. It doesn’t hurt at all that Pinky’s business is making pastries and sweets—but even so, as her niece Lulu looks on anxiously, customers aren’t exactly crowding in. Pinky’s big break comes when she enters a monstrous “Triple Chocolate Yummie Bunny Coco Fudge Frenzy Torte Surprise” in the County Fair’s Best Dessert Contest—and loses on a technicality. Enthusiasm undimmed, she wheels her creation back to the shop, and it proves to be an absolute customer magnet. Malkin (Blanche and Smitty, 1987) depicts everyone here as an alligator in 1950s hair and garb, and festoons every scene with ornately decorated pastries, less caloric-looking than they might be thanks to a rather flat palette, but still mouthwatering. A gooey, triumphant follow-up to Alexa Brandenberg’s Chop, Simmer, Season (1997), Philemon Sturges’s Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza (1999), or other literary main courses. (Picture book. 6-8)