SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Fusenews
  • Reviews
  • Librarian Previews
  • Best Books
    • Top 100
    • Best Books of 2022
    • Best Books of 2021
    • Best Books of 2020
    • Best Books of 2019
    • Best Books of 2018
    • Best Books of 2017
    • Best Books of 2016
    • Best Books of 2015
    • Best Books of 2014
    • Best Books of 2013
  • Fuse 8 n’ Kate
  • Videos
  • Press Release Fun

February 11, 2010 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper

February 11, 2010 by Betsy Bird   2 comments

51T8fx7BymL._SS500_Cupcake
By Charise Mericle Harper
Hyperion Books (an imprint of Disney Book Group)
$14.99
ISBN: 978-142311897-8
Ages 3-7
On shelves now.

You play dirty pool, Charise Mericle Harper. It isn’t enough that you’ve a brand new and very sparkly picture book out. Oh no. You had to go and write one about a cupcake. Cupcakes! The world’s most perfect, most delicious food. How is any gatekeeper of children’s literature (teachers, parents, librarians, booksellers, etc.) going to resist a book that stars the world’s ultimate tasty treat? Unfair, say I. Then I remember that there’s nothing stopping the other authors out there from writing their own cupcake-based books. Ms. Harper just happened to be the one to realize the potential. The result is a book that is smart, funny, and as simple as the vanilla cupcake on its cover. In a word: sweet.

When Cupcake was baked everything was awesome. He introduced himself to all his siblings (Rainbow-Sprinkles Cupcake, Chocolatey Chocolate Cupcake, Stripy Cupcake, etc.) and was perfectly happy with his lot. That is, until the end of the day when all the other cupcakes got picked and Cupcake was left sitting by himself. Joined by an equally plain candle the two decide that what Cupcake needs is a special topping. Pickles don’t seem to work. Spaghetti? Not so much. And don’t even talk about the incident with the squirrel. However, when Candle sees a nut left on the top of Cupcake he goes up there to take it off . . . then realizes something. The final shot is of the candle yelling with triumph, "Tomorrow let’s try a potato!"

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

I first fell for the seemingly simple style of Ms. Harper when she wrote the Fashion Kitty graphic novels. Those were books that I was fairly certain I would hate right off the bat. Fashion meets comics meets kitties How on earth could that be good Doggone it if the woman doesn’t know how to write a funny story though. I still quote the line "I love you but I’d really like to eat you " out of context all the time earning me many a pitying stare from the passersby . Her Just Grace books are another great example. Seemingly simple on the outside. Surprisingly witty and vivacious on the inside. Cupcake is definitely of the same ilk.

Ms. Harper’s artistic style reminds me of nothing so much as a variation on that of fellow author/illustrator Meghan McCarthy. Of course, while Ms. McCarthy does mostly non-fiction picture books, Harper sits squarely in the realm of the fictional. At first this book looks pretty straightforward too. Hand drawn art (colored in by PhotoShop). That sort of thing. But there’s also a bit of mixed media here as well. The tablecloth where much of the action takes place looks like a real tablecloth. It’s probably also PhotoShopped, but who cares? This is a book where the art serves to show off the personality of the characters. And if there’s one thing Ms. Harper excels at, it’s personality.

I’ll level with you here. As I flipped through the book on an initial pass I was pretty sure that I knew what the ending would be. That’s right. I was basically reading the book like a five-year-old. "Surely the ending will be that the candle realizes that it’s the perfect topping for the cupcake," I thought smugly. In fact (and this kind of kills me) I did the worst possible thing a librarian can do when reading a picture book. I got to the penultimate page and then . . . and then . . . I PUT IT DOWN. That’s right! I didn’t even get to the ending. I just put it down and walked away. It wasn’t until later that a small pocket of my brain thought, "Wait a minute. This is Charise Mericle Harper we’re dealing with. What are the chances that she didn’t end the book with the expected coup d’état? So I raced back, checked, and sure as shooting it was a surprise ending. D’oh! Fooled like a little kid! Let’s hope that your preschoolers have a bit more picture book savvy than I did when they read this book.

There are plenty of books out there where the main characters don’t want to get eaten. My thinking is that in this story Vanilla Cupcake really hasn’t thought through all the potential ramifications of being a fancy dessert. Really, the book that this reminded me of the most was Arnie the Doughnut. Cupcake is clearly a distant relative of Arnie, though Arnie is far more aware of his potential fate than this book’s tasty treat. Whatever the case, I kind of love the lack of a moral in this story. It easily could have swerved in the direction of the old lesson, "Just because you’re plain looking you can still have a great personality" (most books tiptoe around these exact words, but that tends to be the general gist). This book shows someone who is outwardly plain at the start and remains outwardly plain at the end with a fellow plain friend. Moral schmoral. This is just fun storytelling. It gets to fool the reader and make the child who picks up this book feel smarter than a cupcake. What’s better than that?

The sole flaw with the book, as I see it, is that after you stare at the cover for a couple minutes you suddenly want nothing more than to get your hands on a delicious vanilla cupcake of your own. Fortunately there’s a recipe at the back (complete with a cupcake toting squirrel) for making your own "Deliciously Plain Vanilla Cupcakes" with their own "Deliciously Plain Buttercream Frosting". So you lack for nothing, really. It’s a funny story about an unlikely edible hero (my favorite kind of hero) and a problem that kids will be able to solve while the main characters remain ignorant. What’s not to love? As per the usual Charise Mericle Harper fare, this is just fun fun fun. Deliciously so.

On shelves now.

Source:
Hardcover copy sent from author.

Blog Reviews:

  • ParentDish
  • Cupcakes Take the Cake
  • Rosemary’s Reading Circle
  • Tree, Root, and Twig


Professional Reviews:

  • Publishers Weekly
  • School Library Journal


Misc:

  • Note too that this is not the first time Ms. Harper has illustrated a cupcake.

Filed under: Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

May 2023

Review of the Day: There Was a Party for Langston, King of Letters by Jason Reynolds, ill. Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey

by Betsy Bird

May 2023

Review of the Day: The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

by Betsy Bird

May 2023

Review of the Day: Like Lava In My Veins by Derrick Barnes, ill. Shawn Martinbrough with Adriano Lucas

by Betsy Bird

May 2023

Review of the Day: Stories of the Islands by Clar Angkasa

by Betsy Bird

April 2023

Review of the Day: Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

by Betsy Bird

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Listen to Gene Luen Yang on TED Radio Hour

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Anatole by Eve Titus, ill. Paul Gadone

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Suee and the Strange White Light | This Week’s Comics

by Lori Henderson

Heavy Medal

More Mock-Newbery Titles Needed: Share June Suggestions Now

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Book Review: Code Red by Joy McCullough

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Trying Something New: SPEED ROUND w/ Marla Frazee, Doug Salati, Dan Santat, and Amina Luqman-Dawson

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

21 Board Books Babies and Toddlers Love and Even Caregivers Clamor For

11 Picture Books to Celebrate Passover

15 Middle Grade & YA Graphic Novels & Audiobooks for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

11 Middle Grade Titles to Share with Budding Activists for Earth Day

12 Latest Installments in Transitional, Middle Grade, and YA Graphic Novel Series

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Christine Murphy Bird says

    February 11, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    Your niece Alexa is frequently told that she is “a delicious morsel.” She always objects, strenuously.

  2. Maggie says

    February 11, 2010 at 4:24 pm

    We have 8 copies of Cupcake and they are ALL checked out. After reading your delectable review, I’m really hungry for cupcakes now; I’m heading home and getting the mixer out.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • External Links

    • A Fuse #8 Production Reviews
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023