Cookie is about to lose her job at the local bakery. She dreams of owning her own bakery but doesn't think she has the skills or money to do it. Most of all, she doesn't have the self-confidence. When she takes a course at the local college, she finds she has much more going for her than she imagined. With the help of her community, she figures out how to make sure no one has to go without her famous doily cookies for long!
GAIL ANDERSON-DARGATZ’s first novel, The Cure for Death by Lightning, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the UK’s Betty Trask Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancity Book Prize. Her second novel, A Recipe for Bees, was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Spawning Grounds was nominated for the Sunburst Award and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award and short-listed for the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Fiction. Her thriller The Almost Wife, a national bestseller in 2021, was followed by The Almost Widow in 2023.
Gail also writes young adult and hi-lo books for the educational market. Her book Iggy’s World was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and shortlisted for the Chocolate Lily Book Awards. The Ride Home was short-listed for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, as well as the Red Cedar Fiction Award and the Chocolate Lily Book Award. Bigfoot Crossing was a 2023 Junior Library Guild (JLG) Gold Standard Selection and commended as a CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens. Spotting Dottie and My Life Off-key were both selected for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Fall 2024 Best Books for Kids and Teens list in the categories Middle Years Fiction (Hi-Lo) and Teen Fiction (Hi-Lo). Spotting Dottie was selected as a 2025 Bank Street Best Book of the Year in the Adventure and Mystery category.
Gail taught for nearly a decade in the CW MFA program at UBC and now works as a mentor and developmental editor. She lives in the Shuswap region of British Columbia. For more, visit her website: gailanderson-dargatz.ca
Eva (atau kadang dipanggil Cookie) sudah belasan tahun bekerja di toko kue milik Diana di area pinggiran kota. Toko kue itu, setelah banyak toko lain di sekitarnya tutup dan/atau gulung tikar, menjadi satu-satunya tempat para warga berkumpul dan bersosialisasi. Namun, karena masalah kesehatan, Diana harus segera menutup bisnisnya.
Sebagai seorang ibu tunggal dengan satu putri yang masih harus ia biayai kuliahnya, Eva memberanikan diri mengambil kelas administrasi demi mempelajari "skill" baru agar bisa mencari pekerjaan lain begitu toko kue Diana tutup. Siapa sangka, justru setelah beberapa lama belajar di kelas itu, Eva malah termotivasi untuk memulai bisnis kuenya sendiri secara kecil-kecilan, yang target besarnya kelak untuk bisa mengambil alih toko kue Diana, sehingga warga akan tetap bisa punya tempat berkumpul.
Bisa dibilang bahwa buku ini adalah panduan memulai bisnis kue yang dibungkus dalam bentuk novel. Novel ini juga merupakan jenis buku "rapid reads" yang sengaja dibuat singkat dan dicetak dalam huruf berukuran besar, yang ditujukan, salah satunya, bagi pembaca dewasa dengan bahasa Inggris bukan bahasa utama mereka.