Cookies for Santa: The Story of How Santa's Favorite Cookie Saved Christmas

by America's Test Kitchen Kids, Johanna Tarkela (Illustrator)

Overview

From the experts at America's Test Kitchen comes a new twist on a holiday tradition. The perfect Christmas gift or stocking stuffer for kids who love to bake!

The Kringle family cookbook has gone missing, and Santa can't remember the recipe for the special cookies he makes every year. But where can he turn for help?

Millions of people bake special Christmas cookies during the holidays—including Santa! In fact, every year he bakes his family's favorite cookie and gives them to the elves and reindeer to show them how much he cares, just like his father and grandfather did. But it's just days before Christmas, and the Kringle family cookbook is nowhere to be found! If he has no recipe, he can't bake his cookies. And if he can't bake his cookies, Christmas might as well be canceled! Luckily, a little girl finds the cookbook and, with the help of America's Test Kitchen, inspires families from all over the world to work together to make sure that Santa and his family have a happy holiday.

Includes a recipe for Santa's Chocolate Krinkle Cookies straight from American's Test Kitchen. Start a new tradition with this sweet interactive holiday story.

This book is perfect for anyone:

• looking for Christmas books for kids as a gift
• who is a fan of America's Test Kitchen
• who loves to bake!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492677710
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,047,197
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD580L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN is the most authoritative resource for reliable, kitchen-tested recipes and cooking information. They value process, curiosity, practicality, and honesty. They believe everyone can learn to be a successful cook and their mission is to test recipes over and over until they understand how and why they work, and arrive at the best version.

Editorial Reviews

10/07/2019

A community steps forward to save Christmas in this cheerful story with a light bookish twist. Each year, Santa makes the same recipe for “deep, dark chocolate cookies with a snow-white exterior: Krinkle Cookies.” Only this year, he can’t find the Kringle family cookbook, and he worries that “everyone will be disappointed” without the traditional treat. Meanwhile, when two Boston siblings visit the library at Christmastime, young recipe enthusiast Abigail discovers an unusual recipe book—none other than Santa’s cherished volume (nevermind how it got there). In this world, Santa and Mrs. Claus make broadcasts “live from the North Pole,” and when it is revealed that the book is missing, Abigail takes action, heading to America’s Test Kitchen to broadcast the recipe so families around the world can make them for Santa. Though the prominent featuring of the Test Kitchen is jarringly self-promotional, the story is a fun concept, and Tarkela’s realistic digital illustration offers the pleasing details of a television studio. A cookie recipe is included. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2019-08-18
When Santa loses his favorite cookbook, it looks like Christmas might be cancelled.

The story is premised on the conceit that Santa's annual Christmas preparations include making Krinkle cookies (recipe included in backmatter) for everyone at the North Pole. Alas, his heirloom cookbook with the recipe is lost, and he's worried "everyone will be disappointed." In an abrupt cutaway to Boston, readers meet Abigail and William, visiting the library with their mother. Unbeknownst to the precocious gourmand Abigail, the cookbook she borrows is the one Santa is missing. How it got to Boston and onto the library's shelves is unclear, but she makes this connection when watching a television broadcast that Santa and Mrs. Claus host annually, and he sadly bemoans the loss of his cookbook. With Christmas just two days away, Abigail's family decides they can't get him the recipe, but they can bake cookies and enlist others' help. America's Test Kitchen, whose offices are conveniently just down the street, helps out—both with discerning some artfully named ingredients and soliciting viewers to also make more cookies for Santa to enjoy and share. It's a happy ending, but Tarkela's illustrations here and elsewhere are stiff and redundant, undermining the book's overall success. Characters' irises are oversized, giving them a distinctly creepy look. Santa and Mrs. Claus present white while Abigail and William seem to be biracial, with an Asian mom and white dad.

This sweet story is sadly underbaked. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews