In this retro-looking picture book (you'd swear it was first published in 1950 in Kansas, instead of 2002 in Japan), Cherry the pig lives in a pretty little village where she enjoys baking. She decides to bake an apple cake, and eat the whole thing herself but as it cools, mice begin to eat it.

Cherry chases the rodents off, and eats the rest of the cake. It is sooooo good. Cherry simply must enter her apple cake in the fair but as she bakes it, she overhears those mice talking and they are not complimentary about her cake.

Cherry is crushed . . .but then she wins first prize! How can that be? Cherry discovers something interesting about mice preferences, starts a business, and works to make friends in a satisfying and (appropriately) sweet ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cherry's story--and when I read it to a two-year-old friend, she gave it a big thumbs-up: "Read it again!" Happily, THE STORY OF CHERRY THE PIG is just as tasty each time it's sampled.

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