The Secret Ingredient: A Cozy Magical Mystery for Kids

Grandma's recipes have always worked a little too well. When Grandma June takes a fall and leaves town to recover, she hands eleven-year-old Zoey and her cousins her old recipe box "just for safekeeping." Which would be easier if the box weren't magic. The brownie pan refuses to empty. The lemonade makes you blurt the truth. The cookies help you focus - on exactly the wrong thing. And Strawberry the cat hisses right before every batch goes sideways, which the cousins really should have noticed sooner. The rules are strict: follow the card exactly. Make it for someone. And never, ever bake from a card marked unfinished. Then a page goes missing. Then another. And when the Winter Festival erupts into gingersnap-fueled chaos and the whole box disappears, Zoey, Zachary, Aliyah, and Kyle have to quit bickering long enough to follow the clues - even the furry, hissing ones - to a thief nobody suspects, with a reason nobody expects. A warm, funny, clue-packed mystery about cousins, cookies, and the one ingredient no recipe can replace. Perfect for fans of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Nevermoor, and Because of Winn-Dixie. First in the Recipe Box Mysteries. No cliffhangers, no nightmares - just one more chapter, please.