A reader´s quote

A charming storytelling skill. One surprise follows another — ghosts, cats, and household spirits keep calling you to read the next chapter and then the next, until soon you feel as if you too are rushing together with the main characters, flying like a ladybird past the magic mirror.
Ah, how I wish I could have read this as a child!

      - Marge Pärnits – writer and poet

Sample

THE OVEN SPIRITS COME TO THE CAFÉ

The next day, Frida and Lonni opened their café. Everything in the café was just as it should be in a proper café.
“Frida! Lonni! The cookies are ready,” shouted the baker.
Frida and Lonni rushed to the kitchen and came back carrying bowls full of oven-warm cookies. Soft music played from the radio. The smell of coffee swirled around the ceiling lamps, exciting two flies that had appeared out of nowhere. The café door rattled strangely.
“It rattles as if there were a draft,” noted Frida.
Clack-clack-clack.
Then came a few light thuds. Then more rattling. A thud. Then quiet muttering and again the rattling.
“Every rattle must come to an end,” said Lonni wisely.

Of course, she was right — the rattling stopped, the café door flew wide open, and in stepped two panting figures, hastily straightening their clothes — very peculiar clothes. To Frida and Lonni’s astonishment, one wore a wide-brimmed hat decorated with yellow park roses and a long dress that flared out enormously.
The other — he wore a black tailcoat and a shiny velvet top hat.
“Ooh!” gasped Lonni.
As if their masquerade-ball outfits weren’t curious enough, the two were also strikingly small in stature.
“Practically dwarfs,” thought Frida.
“Like dolls,” thought Lonni.

The tiny visitors scurried straight across the floor, passing under café chairs and tables without ducking, and stopped by the counter.
Lonni and Frida leaned over the counter on their stomachs and peered down at the two hats below.
“And what may we serve such... such little guests—or wait, teeny-tiny guests?” Frida stammered, leaning further over the edge to get a better look.

The lady, despite the rather improper reception, maintained her dignity.
“Fifteen jam-filled croissants, twenty-eight cookies, thirty rum cakes...” she declared with her head held high.
“Thirty-two, thirty-two!” interrupted the tiny gentleman nervously, tugging at the lady’s skirt.
“Indeed! Thirty-two rum cakes,” corrected the lady, her hat trembling, and continued: “Then one strawberry Pavlova, one mint cake, eight tiramisus, and four cheesecakes with white chocolate and raspberries.”

The lady panted. The gentleman said, “That’s all.”
“All?!” cried Frida.
“All?!” echoed Lonni.
“Or do you have something else?” asked the lady.
“Uhh, no,” stammered Frida.
“Shall we pack it in bags or in boxes?” asked Lonni.
“All on the table!” declared the lady and gentleman in unison. “And please, six pillows — three for each — to sit on, if you understand,” added the gentleman.

“Pillows,” mumbled Lonni, and Frida immediately dashed to the next room, her arms piled high with them. Lonni helped the guests onto the stack of pillows, and Frida brought out the first load of treats.
“Drink!!” bellowed the tiny gentleman, his mouth full to bursting.
“Drink,” echoed Lonni like a parrot, rushing off to fetch a jug.

Plates piled with cakes, buns, and cookies were carried to the round café table; jugs of tea and coffee followed. But before the next load arrived, the previous dishes were already empty and licked clean.
“Incredible,” gasped Lonni.
“Amazing,” panted Frida.
“Saint Peter,” marveled Lonni.
“Bottomless,” muttered Frida.

And then Lonni said it out loud: “Oven spirits!”

The lady cleared her throat. The gentleman slid down from the top of the pillow pile and offered her his hand.
“Not bad at all,” said the lady, casting a gracious look at Frida and Lonni.
“Indeed,” agreed the gentleman with satisfaction.

Frida and Lonni stared at them, dumbfounded.
“Would you be so kind as to open the door for us now? We can’t reach the handle,” said the gentleman with a shy smile.
Frida opened the door.
“We shall meet again,” said the lady with a wave.

And then they were gone. Only one edible thing remained in the café — a half-eaten cookie. Just as Lonni noticed the poor cookie, the rattling began again outside the door.
“They must be coming back for it,” said Lonni, quickly popping the cookie into her mouth.
The rattling stopped. Frida and Lonni closed the café — without knowing it, for quite a long time.

Reading materials:

✓Sample of one chapter in English & synopsis

✓Estonian edition     

✓For more information or copyrights, please contact: maasikjana@gmail.com