Free The Secret Cookie Club by Martha Freeman Page A

Because you skipped fifth grade, you will never know about similes.)
    Now all of a sudden I miss everybody so much! And I miss summer weather, too, even the sweat and the smells in the horse barn and the flies.
    Do you remember the day our parents picked us up and we all said good-bye? For me, it was SO WEIRD. I never told you, but I didn’t want to go to camp. It was my parents’ idea. I think they thought being outside riding horses and stuff would make me less klutzy.
    Ha!
    At first, I was so homesick I called my parents and begged them to fly back from Philadelphia and pick me up. I even cried.
    Then I got over it. Hannah would say it was because of flour power. (Hannah knows everything.)
    So the weird part is by the time the day came to be picked up, I didn’t want to leave camp at all.
    Also, I was embarrassed about my parents.
    Y our parents looked so neat and tidy and full of energy, and Olivia’s parents looked so handsome/beautiful, and Lucy’s mom is young and glamorous in her weird Cali kind of way. I love my parents, and they are nice (I think), but they are old for parents, and my mom refuses to dye her gray and frizzy hair, and they don’t notice how they dress either, unless they are at work. (They always say they have better things to think about than clothes.) Also I thinkthat day they actually held hands with each other. They do that sometimes IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!
    Now you are tired of reading about my parents.
    One more thing about Moonlight Ranch—you have to come back next year because I can’t wait to see you and everybody!
    There is something I have to tell you about the pancakes you are expecting at your friend’s house. On behalf of all the people all over the world who celebrate Hanukkah, I apologize because there won’t be maple syrup. Latkes are made of grated potato and onion. They don’t go with maple syrup.
    Also, the game with the top is called DREIDEL. When you play it, you win gelt, which are chocolate candies in gold wrappers that look like coins. It is a little bit babyish, but still my family plays every year.
    It is so cool that you are dancing in The Nutcracker ! I bet you look totally cute in the costumes even if they are itchy. My parents let me quit ballet.
    You asked about a problem. I do have one, but cookies can’t help.
    Some pictures have disappeared. They were in an envelope my mom handed to me, and when she did, she said, “Put this someplace safe. It’s very important. These photos are old and can’t be replaced.”
    I am sure I did put the envelope someplace safe.
    I just don’t know where.
    And now I can’t find it.
    I can’t tell my mom because she is so well organized she separates her socks by color and keeps eachcolor in its own special bag in her underwear drawer. She would think this is a crisis, and I would get in trouble, which is usually my brother Benjamin’s job.
    The idea of being in trouble makes me so upset, I don’t even want to look for the pictures because what if I don’t find them? What if they are really lost?
    Even though cookies cannot solve my problem, it is still okay for you to send some. I don’t think I am allergic to any of the ingredients in the recipes Hannah gave us. Thank you for asking. Have fun at your friend Shoshi’s party!
    Love from your Moonlight Ranch friend, Emma
    P.S Are you going to send Vivek cookies too? You don’t have to tell :^) but one time he told me he likes frosted ones.
    I reread my e-mail and hoped Grace was patient enoughto read such a long one. Writing a lot was a good way to put off looking for the envelope.
    When I tapped send, I admit that I wondered how soon I would get my cookies.
    Not that cookies were the important part, of course. The important part was that Grace had remembered about the Secret Cookie Club and about camp and she had written to me. The important part was friendship.
    Still, I did wonder when I