Cookie Time

Kat and Ari cherish every moment spent making cookies with their grandfather, but once Grandpa sets the baking timer, the “difficult” part—waiting—begins. So the kids fashion a cardboard box into a time machine and set its dial. It’s meant “to take them into the future, to just after the cookies were finished baking. That way, they would never have to wait,” writes Sima (Perfectly Pegasus). But time travel proves to be far from an exact science. In their quest to savor freshly baked cookies at the perfect moment, depicted in digital renderings as a journey through a series of graduated pentagons, Kat and Ari are transported back to their very first cookie-baking session with Grandpa as well as into a future where cookies materialize instantly, devoid of any human touch. The experiences remind them how fortunate they are to have the present moment, even one that requires waiting. Time may indeed be a social construct, this moving work hints, but it links us most assuredly to those we hold dear. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. Ages 4–8. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Sept.)