When Grandma announces that she is going to Greenland for a year, her family plans a surprise party. Joey confidently helps out cooking, cleaning, and making gifts. You’re too little to help, he tells his brother Alfie. But it is Alfie who comes to Joey’s rescue when the dessert meets with an unfortunate accident. And Joey learns that sometimes a family’s secret recipe contains the ingredients for togetherness, not just pie.

Blue Spruce Award, 2002