Review Detail

Cupcakes and Friend Drama
Overall rating
 
4.3
Plot
 
4.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0
Mia has moved out from Manhattan with her divorced mother and has to deal with a new school as well as a new almost step-father and brother. Mia's mother worked for Flair fashion magazine and is now a consultant, so unlike some other members of the Cupcake Club, Mia cares what she wears. This makes is easy for her to talk to the Popular Girls Club members, but she feels very akward eating lunch with them when she knows how Katie feels about one PGC member, Callie. The girls get several cupcake baking jobs (one for a teacher and one for Mia's mother's fashion show) and have to learn how to budget, especially when they have some spectacular baking disasters (how much lemon juice SHOULD go into a cupcake?) that eat into their profits. Will Mia be able to remain friends with the PGC members and still work with Katie making cupcakes?
Good Points
I'm a big fan of books with Kids Doing Things, and I love that there is a balance between the fun of making cupcakes and the serious matter of doing this as a business. Even though I read the regular novel of this over a decade ago, I still remember the plot point about the sugar flowers-- at 75 cents each, they really cut into the profit when the girls were only charging their teacher $1 per cupcake! Tweens often come up with good ideas that require a lot more thought before they are implemented, so it's good to see Mia and her friends run into small troubles that make them think more concretely about how their business should be run.

This series of books has been out for over ten years and has 34 books altogther, so I wasn't too surprised to see a graphic novel adaptation of some of the books in the series. Since Mia, Katie, Alexis and Emma are a bit hard for me to keep apart, the graphic format was actually a big help! It's fun to see Mia's fashions , and the bright colors and attractive illustrations will make this immediately popular with readers who want fun stories with lots of friend drama! Hand this to readers who have been enjoying the graphic novel reboots of popular older series like Martin's The Baby-sitter's Club or Pascal's Sweet Valley Twins, as well as those who enjoy the original graphic novels of Telgemeier, Jamieson, or Knisley.
Report this review Was this review helpful? 0 0

Comments

Already have an account? or Create an account