Pie by Sarah Weeks, 2011

In my mind, pie season is upon us. A few years back, I spent Thanksgiving at my relatives' home in western Massachusetts. They have the best kind of holiday home with soo many friends coming and going. I've always admired open door policies like that. Anyway, one of their very closest friends baked a pecan pie. Though I was full to the brim with my aunt's killer mashed potatoes, I knew I could make room for a bite or two of pie. Okay, maybe a whole piece...or two...who knows? I very well could have had 3. That was the best darn pie I have ever had! It turns out it was a fairly simple recipe from the back of a Karo Syrup bottle (it doesn't take much to please me) so I've been able to bake it since though it isn't quite as good. Maybe it was the setting, the crowd that really made that pie. Or the crust? I digress.

So though I know some of you may think the summer is pie season with all of those lovely fruit pies ripe for the picking, November and December will always be pie season in my heart. And what more delicious way to kick off this time of year than  a quick reading of Sarah Weeks' middle grade chapter book Pie?

Pie is nominated for a Young Hoosier Book Award this year so I feel like every which way I turn one of my kids at school has their nose in this book. Not to be outdone, I brought a copy home this weekend and had a little look see.

Alice's Aunt Polly can bake a mean pie. From classics like apple pie and meringues to the more obscure chess and concord grape, Aunt Polly can bake them all. She's won many national awards for her delectable deserts. Hailing from Ipswitch, Pennsylvania circa 1955, Polly takes no compensation for her masterpieces. She gives them all away for free. So when Polly passes away suddenly, Ipswitch is thrown in a tizzy wondering how they'll survive without her baked goods and who will take her place as the next Ipswitch queen of pies. Unfortunately for the townspeople, Polly wrote in her will that her crust recipe would be left to her grumpy cat Lardo and Lardo would be left to Alice. Alice is busy missing her Aunt Polly when Lardo goes missing, and she must put the pieces together to figure out who has catnapped the recipe holder.

Kids should read Pie. Wouldn't you know many young readers love a good mystery? And Pie balances mystery with a sweet story about friendship and family. Alice and her mom have a tumultuous relationship and are able to work it out through the course of the story. That is refreshing. I find a lot of middle grade books either with solid and reliable mothers or absent mothers but not a lot in between. I appreciate the realistic quality of that relationship in Pie. Though there are some serious themes (death and loss and mother quarrels), the book maintains an overall light quality with funny scenes like a school principal bench pressing weights or a possible suspect throwing a stolen pie out the window of the local inn. Finally, the book is riddled with pie recipes including that lemon chess pie which a friend of mine made (it is divine!). And is it just me or is there something deeply satisfying about reading recipes?

I think I like pie more than cake. What can I say? See below: