by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 12, 2010   Last Updated: December 09, 2011

"I'm the Gingerbread Baby, Happy as can be,
Until Mattie goes out, then it's lonely here for me."

Jan Brett has always been a fun illustrator, but did you know that she wrote a sequel to "Gingerbread Baby"?  In that first book, a come-to-life gingerbread man led the town on a merry chase - until it was rescued by a little boy named Mattie. Mattie kept him hidden in a beautiful gingerbread house that he'd baked himself in the kitchen. In the sequel, Brett writes a new story about friendship, describing their new life together - and another chase-filled adventure.

The Gingerbread Baby is happy, since Mattie supplies him with treats and toys. But when Mattie goes off skiing with his friends, the Gingerbread baby decides he wants to have a friend of his own. A black hen pulls him into town on a yellow chair equipped with skis. Yet for some reason, there's no reply when he talks to the tiny man-and-woman figurines on the top of a cake in the baker's shop.

"I'm the Gingerbread Baby, Peppy as can be
I'll be friends with you if you'll be friends with me."

There's a sugar cookie girl, standing in a field of marshmallow snow, so he tries his jaunty rhyme again. He spots seven white swans in a sea of sugar frosting, and a bride and groom on top of a wedding cake. But for some reason, the only one who can talk is the Gingerbread Baby himself. And soon he's fleeing the bakery, being chased by the baker, his wife, a cat, and a mouse.

I think Jan Brett is a wonderful illustrator, and this book is a perfect showcase for her talents. The book's inside cover has a beautiful swirl of gingerbread batter, and the frames of each illustration are filled with delicious baked goods. The extra "side illustrations" are a trademark of Jan Brett, and she also draws in some quaint old-timey kitchen supplies. There's colorful patterns on the glass ingredients bowls, and the pictures are framed with candy-cane stripes and gumdrops. And spread out across several pages, there's even a recipe for making gingerbread!

But she also uses the side illustrations to foreshadow the big happy ending for the Gingerbread Baby's dangerous expedition. (He'd taken a nap after crawling through a hole in the wall, only to discover that the mice were nibbling on his marshmallow pom-poms!) The fleeing Gingerbread Baby leaps on the back of the black hen, as "the unfriendly creatures chasing him were joined by a red fox." But when he returns home, he discovers a wonderful surprise that Mattie's been baking all day in the kitchen, that's revealed in an oversized fold-out picture. Mattie's baked up 17 new friends for the Gingerbread Baby. And in their colorful candy village, they sing a new rhyme back to him.

"We're gingerbread friends, playful as can be
We'll be friends with you, If you'll be friends with me - and me - and me!"

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