Roxie the Baking Fairy Read online

  I’m a wonderful painter — have you heard of me?

  Behold my artistic ability!

  With palette, brush, and paints in hand,

  I’ll be the most famous artist in all the land!

  The Magical Crafts Fairies can’t stop me!

  I’ll steal their magic, and then you’ll see

  That everyone, no matter what the cost,

  Will want a painting done by Jack Frost!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  Exhibition Day

  The Great Bake-Off Disaster!

  Star Shapes

  Goblins at Sea

  Fairy Crafts

  And the Winner Is . . .

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “I’m so sad that it’s our last day of vacation.” Kirsty Tate sighed, placing a pile of folded T-shirts in her suitcase. “But I’m super excited about the Crafts Week exhibition and competition today!”

  “So am I,” Rachel Walker agreed. The girls were in Kirsty’s attic bedroom at the b and b, getting their things ready to head home that evening. They’d spent the week on Rainspell Island, staying every other night at the b and b with Mr. and Mrs. Tate, and alternate nights at the campsite with Rachel’s parents.

  “It’s been so much fun trying out all these different crafts, hasn’t it?” said Kirsty enthusiastically, and Rachel nodded. It was Crafts Week on Rainspell Island, and for the past six days the girls had attended all sorts of workshops. Today there was an exhibition of the best crafts created during the week. Prizes were going to be awarded!

  “And isn’t it great that we both have entries in the exhibition, Kirsty?” Rachel asked, stuffing socks into her suitcase. “I think your painting of me under a rainbow should definitely win a prize.”

  “No, I think your story about us meeting the Rainbow Fairies on our first visit to Rainspell Island should win!” Kirsty laughed. “Of course, no one except us knows that it’s all true!”

  At that moment, Mrs. Tate came in. “Girls, have you finished packing yet?” she asked.

  “Almost, Mom,” Kirsty replied, putting her bathroom bag into her suitcase. “Can we bring our entries to Artie for the exhibition now?” Artie Johnson was the organizer of the Rainspell Island Crafts Week.

  “Then we agreed to help bake cakes and cookies to serve at the exhibition this afternoon,” Rachel added.

  “I’m looking forward to tasting them!” Mrs. Tate said with a smile. “Off you go! We’ll see you at the exhibition later.”

  The girls called good-bye to Mr. Tate and hurried out of the b and b. Rachel carried the notebook that author Poppy Fields had given her at the writing workshop, and Kirsty had her painting tucked under her arm.

  A huge tent had been set up on the boardwalk for the exhibition. The girls slipped inside and quickly found Artie and her helpers setting up tables.

  “Hello, girls,” Artie said, beaming at them. “Do you have something for me?”

  Rachel and Kirsty handed over the notebook and painting.

  “Good luck in the competition,” Artie told them. “What are you doing until then?”

  “We’re going to the Sunshine Cake Shop,” Rachel explained. “We’re helping bake goodies for the exhibition.”

  “My husband, Ben, is the head baker there,” Artie said, her eyes twinkling. “I’m sure he’ll be delighted to have some extra hands helping out!”

  After saying good-bye to Artie, the girls left the tent and walked back along the boardwalk to Main Street.

  “The exhibition is going to be so much fun!” Rachel said excitedly.

  “As long as Jack Frost doesn’t ruin everything,” Kirsty replied with a sigh.

  Jack Frost had been up to his old tricks again!

  When Rachel and Kirsty arrived on Rainspell Island, they’d been invited to Fairyland by Kayla the Pottery Fairy, one of the seven Magical Crafts Fairies. The girls had been excited to discover that not only was it Crafts Week on Rainspell Island, it was Magical Crafts Week in Fairyland, too! Kayla had explained that King Oberon and Queen Titania would choose the most impressive fairy crafts to decorate their royal palace.

  But before Magical Crafts Week could get underway, Jack Frost and his goblins had shown up, throwing paint-filled balloons into the crowd. Green paint had splattered everywhere! In the confusion, Jack Frost had snatched the Magical Crafts Fairies’ special objects. Determined to be the best artist ever, Jack Frost had used his icy magic to whisk himself, his goblins, and the magic objects away to the human world. Rachel and Kirsty knew that it was the Magical Crafts Fairies’ job to make sure that humans and fairies had fun doing arts and crafts. But without their magic objects, the fairies were almost powerless! So Rachel and Kirsty had set out to find all the magic objects, with the fairies’ help.

  “We can’t let Jack Frost ruin the last day of Crafts Week. We just can’t!” Rachel said firmly.

  “There’s only one magic object left to find,” Kirsty reminded her. She began to count them. “Kayla the Pottery Fairy, Annabelle the Drawing Fairy, Zadie the Sewing Fairy, Josie the Jewelry Fairy, Violet the Painting Fairy, Libby the Writing Fairy . . .” Then Kirsty gasped. Uh-oh!

  “Rachel!” she cried. “The last missing object must belong to Roxie the Baking Fairy!”

  “Oh, no!” Rachel groaned. “That means everything we bake for the exhibition will be terrible — unless we can find Roxie’s magic object before this afternoon!”

  A little while later, the girls arrived at the Sunshine Cake Shop on the other end of Main Street. The windows of the bakery were filled with trays of cream cakes, fruit tarts, pretty pastel-colored cupcakes, and chocolate brownies. Their mouths watering, Rachel and Kirsty went inside.

  “Hello, girls! Are you here to help with the baking for the exhibition?” a man in a white apron asked, poking his head out of a door at the back of the shop.

  “Yes, we are,” Kirsty replied.

  “Come and join us in the kitchen,” the man said, smiling. “I’m Ben Johnson, Artie’s husband.”

  The girls hurried into the kitchen. They were happy to see some of the other kids who’d been at the workshops with them all week, plus some of the instructors, including author Poppy Fields, Polly Painterly the artist, Clayton Potts the potter, and jeweler Carrie Silver.

  Ben had already laid out flour, sugar, eggs, and other ingredients on the counter, along with bowls, wooden spoons, measuring cups, and electric mixers. He handed out aprons, chefs’ hats, and different recipe cards. Rachel got lemon drizzle cake, and Kirsty got sugar cookies.

  “Okay, everyone, as you know, we want some wonderful cakes and cookies for the Crafts Week finale this afternoon!” Ben said.

  Everyone began gathering their ingredients. Rachel picked up an egg carton, but it slipped from her hands. All the eggs smashed on the floor!

  “What a klutz I am!” Rachel groaned.

  “Don’t worry,” Ben said. “We have plenty more.” But as he brought some fresh eggs over to Rachel, there was a cry from Polly Painterly, who was making a banana chocolate chip cake.

  “Look out for that banana peel on the floor!” she exclaimed.

  She was too late! Ben slipped on the banana peel and knocked Carrie Silver’s bowl of coffee-and-walnut cake batter onto the floor. Then one of the kids dropped a bag of powdered sugar. The box hit the floor, and the powdered sugar billowed out in a big white cloud. Everyone started coughing!

  “Oh, no!” Kirsty suddenly cried in surprise. “I sh
ould have put a teaspoon of salt and a cup of sugar in my cookie dough — but I switched them around! I’ll have to throw this salty batter away.”

  “This is all because Roxie the Baking Fairy doesn’t have her magic object!” Rachel whispered.

  Ben helped Carrie clean up her mess, and they started the cake again. But when Ben switched on the electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar with the flour and eggs, he gave a yelp as the mixture flew everywhere!

  People ducked as it splattered the counters, the windows, and even the ceiling.

  “This kitchen is a disaster zone!” Rachel said, wiping a splotch of cake mix off her nose. She picked up her mixing bowl — and, to her amazement, out fluttered Roxie the Baking Fairy, shaking powdered sugar from her wings!

  “Hello, girls,” Roxie murmured. She looked very pretty in her pink, full-skirted dress with a ruffled petticoat peeking out. On her feet were pink ballet flats decorated with tiny gold stars. “I’m sure you’ve been expecting me. This kitchen is a mess!”

  “You can say that again, Roxie!” Rachel whispered as a burning smell filled the air.

  “My peanut butter cookies!” one of the kids yelled. Ben dashed over to an oven and pulled open the door. Smoke poured out as he removed a tray of burned cookies. Everyone gathered around to look.

  “Girls, will you help me get my magic star-shaped cookie cutter back?” Roxie asked while everyone else was distracted. “Those goblins must be around here somewhere.”

  “Of course we will,” Kirsty replied.

  Flashing the girls a grateful smile, Roxie dove inside Kirsty’s apron pocket.

  “We have to find that cookie cutter, and fast,” Rachel told Kirsty. “Otherwise, there will be no cakes or cookies at all for the exhibition this afternoon.”

  “Well, this looks wonderful!” Ben said suddenly from the other side of the kitchen.

  Curious, Rachel and Kirsty turned to see what he was talking about. He was admiring a cake made by some kids wearing bright green aprons and matching chefs’ hats.

  “What an amazing cake!” Poppy Fields exclaimed, as everyone headed over to look.

  “Wow!” Kirsty murmured to Rachel. “It really is spectacular!”

  The enormous cake had been decorated to look like the Rainspell Island seashore. There was an ocean of blue icing swirls, golden sand made of buttercream icing sparkling with edible glitter, and white marshmallow cliffs.

  “There’s even a model of my lighthouse!” Polly Painterly laughed. “And it’s all the right colors, too.”

  “See the surfers?” said Ben, pointing to a couple of tiny green figures on top of the blue icing waves. “And the boat? This really is a magnificent cake! How did you manage to bake it and decorate it so quickly?” he asked the boys.

  “Because we’re baking experts, that’s why!” one of the kids proclaimed, and the others chuckled.

  “This cake will be perfect for the exhibition,” Ben told them. “You can take it over to the tent now.”

  The group of kids proudly carried the cake away. But as they passed the girls, Rachel noticed long green noses poking out from underneath their chefs’ hats. She glanced at Kirsty.

  “Goblin alert!” Rachel whispered.

  The goblins were muttering to each other. Rachel moved a little closer to hear what they were saying.

  “We’re not sharing this cake,” the biggest goblin said. “No way!”

  “Let’s take it to the beach and eat it ourselves!” a goblin with huge ears suggested. The others cackled with glee.

  “Let’s follow them, Kirsty,” Rachel said urgently. Immediately, the girls went to find Ben.

  “We’re just going out to get some ideas for decorating our cakes and cookies,” Kirsty told him.

  “That’s fine,” Ben agreed.

  Rachel and Kirsty quickly took off their aprons and hats, and Roxie hid herself in a pocket of Rachel’s shorts. Then they followed the goblins out of the shop. They were just in time to see them heading down the steps to the beach.

  “We could keep up with the goblins more easily if we could fly,” Rachel suggested. Right on cue, Roxie fluttered out of her pocket.

  “Just what I was thinking, girls!” Roxie cried, her eyes sparkling.

  Rachel and Kirsty ducked behind a wall while Roxie worked her magic. In no time, the girls became fairy-sized, with sparkling wings on their shoulders. Then the three of them zoomed along the beach until they caught up with the goblins.

  “Stay high above their heads so they don’t spot us,” Roxie whispered.

  From overhead, the girls and Roxie had a better view of the wonderful cake below. Suddenly, Roxie gasped aloud.

  “Girls, the goblins definitely used my magic cookie cutter to make shapes for their cake!” she declared with a frown. “See the tiny star on the sail of the boat? And on the flag stuck in the sandcastle?”

  “I can see another one, too.” Kirsty pointed down at the cake. “It looks like a starfish half-buried in the sand.”

  Roxie peered down. “That’s no starfish,” she announced. “That’s my magic cookie cutter! Now’s our chance to get it back! Any ideas?”

  The goblins placed the cake carefully on top of a flat rock on the beach, then stood back to admire it.

  “I’ll eat the lighthouse,” the biggest goblin declared.

  “I want that part!” another goblin grumbled.

  “I’ll eat the ocean,” announced the goblin with the huge ears.

  “That’s not fair,” the goblin next to him complained. “It’s almost half of the cake!”

  “So?” the big-eared goblin retorted with a shrug.

  All the goblins began arguing loudly over which part of the cake they wanted for themselves.

  “Now’s our chance, girls,” Roxie whispered. “Let’s try and dig my magic cookie cutter out of the icing!”

  Roxie, Rachel, and Kirsty flew down to the cake, keeping out of the goblins’ sight. The goblins were hollering and shrieking at one another, and there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on, too.

  Now that they were close to the cake, Rachel could see a faint golden haze of magic around the top of the cookie cutter. “There’s just enough sticking out for us to grab onto,” Rachel whispered. “If we all pull together —”

  But suddenly, Rachel stopped in alarm. A big green goblin hand was sneakily reaching for a chunk of cake — right next to where the three of them were hovering! Roxie quickly pulled the girls to hide in a cave cut in the side of the marshmallow cliffs.

  “Stop that!” the big goblin yelled at the cake thief, suddenly spotting what he was up to.

  “But I want some cake!” the goblin whined.

  As the goblins all continued to argue, Rachel turned to Kirsty and Roxie.

  “We’re too small to pull out the magic cookie cutter now, but I thought of another way to get it back,” Rachel whispered. “Kirsty and I have to be our normal size for it to work, so first we need to escape from this cave!”

  Roxie grinned. “The goblins are practically wrestling each other over the cake,” she pointed out. “So I think it’s safe to leave!”

  Roxie and the girls darted out of the cave and back to a nearby wall. The goblins never noticed a thing! A burst of glittery magic from Roxie’s wand made Rachel and Kirsty their usual size again. Rachel explained her plan, and the three of them headed back to the goblins again. Roxie kept out of sight, high above the girls.

  “Oh, what a fabulous cake!” Kirsty gasped. All the goblins turned to stare at her, which was just what Rachel was hoping for. It was Kirsty’s job to keep the goblins distracted while she tried to grab the cookie cutter. “Did you bake it?”

  The goblins nodded proudly.

  “It looks delicious,” Kirsty said eagerly. “Can I have a little taste?”

  The goblins glared at
her.

  “No way!” screeched the biggest goblin. “This cake is for goblins only!”

  “But it’s nice to share,” Kirsty told him.

  “Goblins don’t share,” the goblin with the huge ears snapped. “Goblins are greedy!”

  “I’m not greedy,” another goblin protested.

  “Then give this pesky human girl your piece of cake!” said the big-eared goblin.

  None of the goblins were looking at the cake, so they didn’t see Roxie hovering above it. Meanwhile, Rachel stayed out of sight behind Kirsty and tried to pry the magic cookie cutter out of the buttercream icing. But unfortunately, the goblin who had tried to steal some cake earlier decided to try again while the others were arguing with Kirsty. As he snuck over to the cake, the goblin spotted Rachel and Roxie immediately. He gave an angry cry.

  “Get away from our cake!” he yelled.

  The other goblins hurried forward, furious, and snatched the cake from under Rachel’s nose. They bolted across the beach, carrying the cake above their heads.

  “Look!” one of the goblins shouted, pointing at an inflatable boat pulled up on the sand.

  The goblins quickly piled into the boat, taking the cake with them. The biggest goblin pushed the boat into the shallow waves, then jumped in himself.

  “You can’t catch us!” the goblins chanted smugly as they rowed away, leaving Kirsty, Rachel, and Roxie on the beach. “And you’re not getting any of our cake, either!”

  “What do we do now?” Rachel asked, dismayed.