cover image Bliss

Bliss

Kathryn Littlewood. HarperCollins/Tegen, $16.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-208423-1

The Follow Your Bliss Bakery has a remedy for everything. Stone Sleep Snickerdoodles can cure sleepwalking, and Fluffy White Macaroons once lifted a neighbor right out of a well. When the Bliss parents go on a business trip, they leave the key to their magical Bliss Cookery Booke with 12-year-old Rosemary, and things go haywire. “Aunt” Lily (a distant cousin) shows up, charming Rosemary’s siblings, but Rosemary senses Lily’s true aim: to steal the book. The only way to test Lily’s trustworthiness is to whip up some of the magical recipes and observe her reactions. After Rosemary’s brother distributes their experiments to the whole town, creating crowds of love-struck teenagers, nuns who can’t hold their tongues, and general mayhem, Rosemary wonders if she’s fit to be a “kitchen magician” after all. Littlewood’s first novel mixes the sincere and the silly with entertaining results. This lighthearted family adventure offers a well-meaning and believably insecure heroine, as well as boisterous sibling interactions, and the open-ended finale suggests that readers can expect to see the Bliss family again soon. Ages 8–12. Agent: Michael Stearns and Ted Malawer, the Inkhouse. (Feb.)