The Cupcake Diaries: Mia's Baker's Dozen by Coco Simon (Children's, 7 years +, 10/10)

Funky cherries! (I'm cherry obsessed when it comes to images)

September 2012, Simon and Schuster

124 pages, Paperback

Review copy

Themes: friendship, struggling with school, getting to grips with a step family, keeping secrets that should be shared, making mistakes, being a good friend, creative baking, fashion, quite a few laughs, tissues are neede

Summary from Simon and Schuster

Mia is getting used to her new family now that her mum is remarried to Eddie and she's gained a new stepbrother, Dan. She's in the groove of going to her dad's house on the weekends, and everything is going pretty well at home and at school. Well, except for Spanish class. Mia's parents and stepfather speak it and she does too - but speaking it and writing it are two different things, and somehow Mia ends up in the hands of the merciless Mrs Alvarez and almost failing Spanish class.  Still, things are so good at home that Mia doesn't want to worry anyone or rock the boat. But when her parents find out - all three of them - she realises that instead of having two parents, she's lucky enough to have three, and all three of them pitch in to help her. A baker's dozen is a bonus!

Nayuleska's thoughts

I was astonished at how close a lot of Mia's thoughts are to my own. Even though I'm over a decade older than Mia, her thoughts and fears are ones that I and every reader will be able to relate to in some way. It's hard when you feel you have to live up to expectations and flunk them. There's always a way round it as Mia discovers in this 10/10 read.

You can find out more on Coco's website.

Suggested read

Naturally read the other books in the series which start with The Cupcake Diaries: Katie and the Cupcake Cure.

 Another read with a club based on friendship is The Babysitter's Club by Ann Martin, starting with Kristy's Big Idea.