COBBLE STREET COUSINS

• Lily, who wants to be a poet
• Tess, who wants to be a Broadway star
• Rosie, who wants a little cottage with flowers by the door

Right now, though, the cousins are sharing an attic bedroom in their Aunt Lucy?s light blue house on Cobble Street, and happily making plans for the summer. A cookie company seems the perfect way to make a little money, but it turns out to be much more — an opportunity to meet some very special neighbors!

Three creative cousins bring can-do spirit and goodhearted fun to this new chapter book series from Newbery Medalist Rylant. Nine-year-olds Lily, Rosie and Tess are bunking with their Aunt Lucy for a whole year while their parents--ballet dancers all--tour the world. They've made a cozy haven in Aunt Lucy's attic where they can each enjoy their favorite pursuits and dream up fun things to entertain themselves. Starting a cookie company is the first order of business in In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen, and the girls manage to play match-maker for Aunt Lucy and befriend a 90-year-old neighbor on her birthday while delivering batches of cinnamon crinkles. And in A Little Shopping the girls show their flair for arts and crafts when they whip up something special for Aunt Lucy. Rylant's confident and sweet-natured heroines are the kind of girls-next-door that anyone would want to know better. Her chipper tone and succinct, yet open-ended stories will encourage her target readership to come up with their own creative projects. Halperin's (Once Upon a Company) generous sprinkling of cozy, pale-hued pencil-and-watercolor illustrations throughout capture a warm family dynamic and provide energetic expressions for a friendly cast. Ages 7-10. (Oct.)