THE HIGH RISE GLORIOUS SKITTLE SKAT ROARIOUS SKY PIE ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Watson Hoping to duplicate her mother's treasured memory of a splendid cake made by her great-grandmother, the young narrator secretly gets up at midnight to bake a birthday cake, following a recipe she's discovered in an old notebook. All goes well; in fact, three angels appear to praise the cake--and, disconcertingly, to eat it. However, the girl's generosity and her hope of presenting her mother with a loving, homemade gift are rewarded: in the morning there's a new, incredibly delicious, already-frosted cake waiting in the oven--the perfect match to Mom's memories. Watson illustrates this sly, poetic fantasy with delicate humor and imagination, with the overabundance of literal detail he used in Tom Thumb (1989) giving way to a more interesting combination of precise images, evanescent decorative detail, and airy white space. His angels are a multicultural delight. Pleasingly offbeat.