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CHAPTER 1
Delores was a sensitive bird with a sentimental heart. There was no bird in all of Woodland Grove as sweet and caring.
She liked to knit, but wasn't very good at it.
She liked to ice-skate, but wasn't very good at it.
She liked to bake, but wasn't very good at it.
What she DID know was that she was exceptional at being a friend. All of her closest friends knew they could always count on Delores.
When they were sick, she was there to help out.
When it was their birthday, she always told a joke to make them laugh.
When they needed a shoulder to cry on, she would cry with them.
After all, that is what good friends do…and Delores was a good friend. She believed that about herself, and it was true. Making people feel good was Delores' specialty.
Delores loved all her friends, but most of all she loved Merv. Merv was her BEST friend. He understood Delores and her silly ways and he loved her anyway. No matter what happened or what she did wrong, Merv stuck by her. After all, that is what you do when you believe in someone, and Merv believed in Delores.
Every day was a new adventure for Delores. She had crazy ideas, and Merv always told her, "Trust your crazy ideas!" So when Delores heard about the Woodland Grove Baking Competition, she got one of her crazy ideas!
She would enter the competition and become the first bird in her family to win the honor of having her recipe printed in The Gobbler, the Woodland Grove newspaper.
She liked to bake, and even though she wasn't a good baker, she wanted to win more than anything in the world. After all, Delores thought, winners are people who want it very badly, right?
Delores set her mind on winning. She practiced making her honey birdseed treats for all the neighborhood chicks. The redbreast twins next door told her they were the worst they had ever eaten!
"I know," sighed Delores, "but they are made with more love than you will ever get in one cookie!"
"Well, that doesn't make them taste any better!" said the twins.
Determined to win, Delores tried to make chocolate nut bark for Merv to nibble on. Merv chomped the candy while Delores watched. She knew it wasn't very tasty, but she really had tried hard. She thought he might like it. Merv just smiled and said, "This tastes like bark, dear."
"I know," cooed Delores, "but I really want to win this contest! I will figure something else out."
After all, thought Delores, if you want something bad enough and you work very hard at it you will get it, right?
Delores knew she was not the best baker in the world, but she kept on trying. She knew that her effort would pay off in the end.
Delores finally found a fortune cookie recipe and mastered it in only three days! She even figured out how to write little messages to place inside the cookies for the person eating one to find. What a fun way to make people happy, by sending them messages that make them feel good! That was Delores' specialty, making people feel good.
Delores spent weeks practicing her fortune cookie recipe. She made some for old Mrs. Gooseberry next door. The messages inside told her that she was a good neighbor, and all her friends appreciated her. Mrs. Gooseberry loved the messages but always threw the cookies away. They didn't taste very good.
On the day of the baking competition, Delores gathered all the baking tools she needed for her famous fortune cookies. She prepared special messages for the judges so that when they opened their cookies, they would find messages to make them feel good. Delores was wonderful at making people feel good, but she was not good at baking. She knew that, but she was prepared to try her very best anyway.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Delores Bakes a Fortune"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Pam Rapoza.
Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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