What's in the Cookie Tin?

Written by Yolanda T. Marshall

Illustrated by Golnoush Moini

Chalkboard Publishing

978-1-77105-884-1

36 pp.

Ages 3-8

2024 

 

Who doesn't have an assortment of cookie tins kicking around the house? Whether they were the packaging in which biscuits were purchased or tins specifically purchased to store cookies, most people have at least a couple. But what is inside a cookie tin cannot be discerned until that lid is removed. And when a tin displays an assortment of tasty treats, what would most children anticipate? 

From What's in the Cookie Tin?, written by Yolanda T. Marshall, illustrated by Golnoush Moini

Olivia and Benjamin head over to their grandparents' home, looking forward to their grandfather's wacky pranks and the hugs they get from Grandma. But they are especially keen to go through their father's childhood toys in the guest bedroom. That is, until Benjamin spots a blue and gold cookie tin on a shelf. Their struggle to open the tin–those tins can be a struggle for little hands–is interrupted by lunch.

From What's in the Cookie Tin?, written by Yolanda T. Marshall, illustrated by Golnoush Moini

Surprisingly, they revisit that cookie tin when Grandma goes to mend a tear in Olivia's dress. But why would Grandma want cookies to repair a torn dress? The surprise is on Grandma, though, much to the delight of the children because Grandpa had another trick up his sleeve.

From What's in the Cookie Tin?, written by Yolanda T. Marshall, illustrated by Golnoush Moini

Yolanda T. Marshall speaks to so many with this playful and yet innocent story of a cookie tin. That cookie tin, with which many who have ever enjoyed butter cookies from a tin will be familiar, brings joy and laughter through a little fun, a lot of tastiness, and a family-load of affection.  And Yolanda T. Marshall, who also wrote the recently reviewed Hot Cross Buns for Everyone!, not only tells a charming intergenerational story, but she also gives us a story of a black family. Though the number of stories with persons of colour are ever increasing, it's lovely to read a story that would allow black children to see themselves and their families as typical and sweet and lighthearted, as every child should.

 

Golnoush Moini, an illustrator and 2D animator from Vancouver, keeps that playfulness in her prominent colours and well-defined shapes. It's also refreshing how dark-skinned Golnoush Moini makes her characters, not trying to appease non-BIPOC who narrow-mindedly expect families of lighter skin. From the grandparents to the grandkids, the characters in What's in the Cookie Tin? are convincing real in appearance and activities.

This cookie tin is busy, getting opened by grandparents, children and parents, and swapped between cookie vessel and sewing kit. And yet it's a bigger story. Yolanda T. Marshall includes "Cookie Tin Memories" at the conclusion of her story in which educators share their own fond remembrances of cookie tins that held everything from buttons to craft supplies to loose change and even baked goods. (Butter cookies were often housed in these blue tins and Yolanda T. Marshall includes a recipe for them too.) But no one knows what's in the cookie tin until that lid is pried off and the secrets within revealed and share. So, what's in your family's cookie tins?