Goody O'Grumpity

Wolff's (Come With Me; A Year of Beasts) stunning linoleum-block prints, painted with predominantly earth-toned watercolors, illustrate this timeless, lilting poem by the late Brink, who won the 1936 Newbery Medal for Caddie Woodlawn. The art and handsome typography, set on simulated parchment pages, evoke a colonial past, when the children of a village rally at the news that a kindly woman is baking a cake. ``With wishful eyes and watering mouth,'' the youngsters appear at Goody's door to lick the bowl after she has prepared her treat for baking. And they are at her side when Goody removes the cake from an outdoor oven: ``They said not a word, just breathed in the spice,/ And at last when the cake was all golden and nice,/ Goody took a great knife and cut each a slice.'' According to an illustrator's note, Wolff's research brought her to Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, where she found the 17th-century recipe for spice cake (containing the ingredients mentioned in the poem) that is reprinted at the close of this engaging book. Ages 3-5. (Sept.)