Harry the cake decorator makes “marzipan toes on twirling ballerinas…and caramel trains chugging down chocolate tracks,” to the delight of his customers and his after-school friend, Ben. When new owners demand “young bakers, not old,” this mutual appreciation society is rudely sundered. After 35 years of experience, Harry can’t find a new job, and fishing and bowling quickly pall.

Ben finds his friend slumped in front of the television, and asks Harry’s help with a clay project. The baker discovers clay is just like buttercream icing – it can be twisted, shaped, and turned into sculptures. All is well, art has a new home, and connoisseurs come to buy Harry’s (and Ben’s) clay masterpieces – “each one special.”

The creators have a good record in the pre-school market. Author Frieda Wishinsky’s Oonga Boonga was a bestseller, and artist Werner Zimmermann’s Farmer Joe series is much loved by the younger age group. Ben is portrayed as a sensitive, warm child who can see art in pastry, and whose love for his friend is rewarded by Harry’s return of self-esteem. The text is well crafted, the illustrations are bubbling, joyous, and even delightfully sly (especially the leather-jacketed art critic). Good humour abounds.

But however touching and affirmative, this is a book for adults. As in many other intergenerational picture books, such as Jeremiah Learns to Read, by Jo Ellen Bogart, the child is the agent, not the subject. It is adult sensibilities that are addressed when Harry is saved from the ignominy of downsizing. Ben is almost a metaphor for the caring, supportive society whose demise we are mourning. As a work portraying “special” talents and warm relationships between generations, the book succeeds. But Oonga Boonga will probably remain a child’s more likely choice for repeated readings.