BRIDGET VANDERPUFF AND THE BAKED ESCAPE

An inventive and self-confident 9-year-old jumps at the chance to trade her miserable orphan’s life for a home with a baker who’s lost his ability to see magic.

Bridget Baxter can pick a lock, escape a dungeon, and deploy her paraskirt to drift safely groundward, and she’s done all this and more during her nine years at Miss Acrid’s Orphanage for Errant Childs. Bridget is heartbroken when Miss Acrid engineers matters so that every other orphan—including her best friend, Tom—is adopted, leaving her all alone. A vivid dream propels Ernest Vanderpuff to Miss Acrid’s door to inquire about Bridget. When the vile Miss Acrid sends him away, Bridget sails intrepidly from the roof and departs in Mr. Vanderpuff’s car. Once ensconced at Vanderpuff’s Bake Shop, Bridget finds a soft bed, a friendly resident elf, and a mysterious Locked and Secret Door. Bridget’s madcap baking adventures result in lessons in trying your best and being a good friend. Miss Acrid’s somewhat cartoonish awfulness fits the story’s tone, as do Bridget’s many clever escapes and contraptions. This bighearted series opener works delightfully sophisticated vocabulary into every page, supplemented with humorous footnotes and punctuated with energetic line drawings. The ending promises a reunion with Tom and more adventures to come. Bridget and Miss Acrid read white; Mr. Vanderpuff and Tom are brown-skinned.

An indomitable hero whips up whimsical bakery concoctions, with life lessons sprinkled throughout.