Cake: Love, Chickens and a Taste of Peculiar

Gr 4–6—Wilma Sue, 12, is entering her third foster home, hoping that she won't land back at the Daylily Home for Children. This time, she's placed with eccentric sisters Ruth and Naomi, former missionaries in Malawi. Wilma Sue is welcomed immediately as part of the household and is soon helping Naomi bake cakes for neighbors in need-cakes that seem to have magical powers, though Wilma Sue, despite her sneakiest efforts, can't figure out the secret ingredient. Ruth and Naomi gently guide her as she learns to deal with difficult neighbors, accept love, and feel at home. The bulk of the action takes place in the final 40 pages, as a Malawi-inspired village council of elders is assembled to deliberate over a recently burned chicken coop. Only the most patient and determined readers will make it that far, though; the abundance of sophisticated descriptions and similes, glaring inconsistencies, and scattered cast of random characters will turn most readers away. Wilma Sue, who uses outdated phrases like "leapin' red lizards!" and passionately reads Beowulf (passages of which are quoted in the text), is tough to believe. The magical effects of Naomi's cakes don't receive enough attention, and readers may be disappointed that they are never explained.—Amanda Struckmeyer, Middleton Public Library, Madison, WI