The Grumpy Baker

In a small town with cobblestone streets, a bakery with a blue door belongs to Mr. Crumble, a baker whose bread is admired but whose manner is not. Tall and broad, dusted with flour, with bushy grey eyebrows and a drooping moustache, he greets customers with grunts and thumps his dough, and the bakery feels as cold as a winter morning. Then one grey day the bread rolls twist into angry frowns, raisin eyes appear on their crusts, and a cheeky dough mascot named Doughboy shows up with a grumpy line for a mouth.

Pastries droop like wilted flowers and cakes tremble until their icing cracks, and frightened customers turn away at the blue door. When cheerful Pip, a child in a bright yellow raincoat and red boots, skips in and asks to help, she offers a simple thought: perhaps the baked goods are only copying the baker's feelings. Kneading dough with a smile and a happy tune, she shows Mr. Crumble how kindness and a little warmth can change what comes out of the oven. This warm, whimsical tale by Yavuz DEMİRKIRAN follows a slow softening through small daily gestures, and it can be read on Online Masal.