Priceman (How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
) fires up the oven for another fanciful baking–cum–geography lesson. Her aspiring young pastry chef, jaunty pinafore and straw hat in place, embarks on a nationwide search for utensils as well as ingredients when she finds the local cook shop closed. First stop, New York, for a taxi ride to “the corner of Pennsylvania and Ohio”; “Then find the closest coal mine” (used to make steel, and thus a pie pan). Ship, plane, train and bus are among the other modes of transport that carry our heroine from sea to shining sea and beyond, to Alaska and Hawaii, landing her home for pie preparation on the Fourth of July. Like a series of playful postcards, the gouache scenes feature recognizable landmarks (Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore, oil wells), with the girl's loyal Airedale in on the action, too. Fans of the first book will cotton to this second helping, even though it's slightly less spontaneous. And the pie recipe is a welcome extra. Ages 5–8. (Oct.)
