Ariel is a middle-schooler who knows just what she wants to do with her life. She's going to be a chef. Her two best friends, Nicki and Mattie, are very supportive of Ariel's dreams -- even as they devour her culinary creations. The trio seems inseparable. But all that could change, because Mattie's mother just announced that they are going to move. The girls hatch a plot to have Mattie stay with Ariel's family until the end of the year. But living together isn't quite the experience either girl expected, and now the third best friend, Nicki, has become secretive regarding mysterious calls that come to her "emergency" cell phone. Things get so tense that the girls start avoiding each other. A time that should bring them closer may sever their bond altogether.
Ariel has to face her own weaknesses, most notably her jealousy as Mattie tries to find a place in Ariel's daily family life. This also forces Ariel to explore and come to terms with her dissatisfaction with her own family dynamic. Her parents are portrayed as caring, three- dimensional people with their daughter's best interest at heart. Yet, they don't overwhelm Ariel, letting her instead make her own decisions and mistakes. Overall, this is a warm, touching book.
THE CREPE MAKERS' BOND contains recipes for many of the dishes Ariel cooks. The instructions are clearly written, and the level of kitchen skills required is appropriate for an advanced beginner. This is a good introduction to cooking that just might inspire a few other middle- schoolers to dream of being chefs. This book is the sequel to Crabtree's Discovering Pig Magic, which won the 2008 Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature. That book was narrated by Mattie. We can only hope that Crabtree follows this one up with Nicki's story.
Ariel is the head chef in her kitchen. Cucumber salads,
fettucine carbonara, fish tacos, and peanut butter pie are
just a few of the dishes she crafts when sheβs feeling
frustrated by the world. And itβs turning into a
frustrating year. Ariel, Nicki, and M have been inseparable
friends since they were kids, but now Mβs mom has decided
to move away. Itβs the girlsβ last year in middle school,
and now theyβre being separated?
The friends concoct a plan that will keep M in the Bay areaβ
sheβll move in with Ariel and her family. But before you
can say bff, the party is over. Everything M does gets on
Arielβs nerves, and itβs not long before the girls are
avoiding each other. This was supposed to be their best
year ever, but some painful lessons are threatening to tear
their friendship apart. Can the girls scramble to make
things right before the bond crumbles?
EXCERPT
The earthquake started like they always do. Suddenly. Nicki and M were sitting on barstools watching me fold won tons one minute, and the next second we were all thrown on the floor. I instinctively crouched against the cabinets as the wave-like motion of the earth rattled the flour canister off the counter. It hit my arm on its way down. My hearing became incredibly sharp. I instantly registered clacking silverware, pots and pans jingling deep within the cabinets, glasses and bowls clattering delicately, and outside the jarring blares of dozens of car alarms. My own sharp breathing was loudest of all. The floorβs vibration traveled through my knees and hummed in my belly. Shredded carrots and a won ton wrapper tumbled from the counter and landed next to me.
M yelled, "Stay down, Nicki!"
I heard Nicki say something but the fruit bowl clattered to the ground just then and I couldnβt make out words, only the fear. An apple rolled to a stop against my leg and, insanely, I wondered if the fall had bruised it.
Then, just as suddenly, it stopped. I stood up cautiously and peeked out the window. A hose reel had tumbled onto my motherβs border of violets, smashing their delicate purple heads into the dirt. Our neighborβs wind chime had fallen and shattered.
Nickiβs voice startled me out of my trance. She asked, "Are you both okay?"
I looked over at M, who was picking up paper napkins that had dropped to the floor with the first jolt. She nodded. No one said anything else. It was one of those weird frozen-in-time moments, like we were just hovering in space or something. I realized it was the absolute motionlessness of the earth that created this sensation.
There is no more complete feeling of stillness then right after an earthquake. You canβt imagine how unmoving ground feels like such a gift. You want to trust it, but you canβt. See, there are always aftershocks, little jolts and pulses beneath your feet reminding you that nothing is ever completely reliable. Not even the ground under your feet.
In my mind I always see that day, the day of the quake, as the point when things began to shift between me and M and Nicki. I would begin to see everything that happened as either before the quake or after the quake. It was the start of the hardest year of my life. Well, my life so far."
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