Bake Sale - Sara Varon

I guess it’s time to take note once your kid has checked a book out from the library for the gazillionth time.  It’s really time to take note when she asks to send a fan letter/illustration to the author/illustrator. 

 

While I can’t say it quite knocked my socks off in the same way as my daughter, I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised.  On the face of it, this is a sweet and slyly comic story about a cupcake who owns a bakery and has an eggplant for a best friend.  Underneath all that it’s a story about friendship, creative block, achieving goals and self-sacrifice.  

 

I think what makes this book so attractive to my daughter are all the little visual and textual details that come together to make up Cupcake’s world.  I think it lends the whole book an odd sort of realism.  I was surprised to find myself feeling rather emotionally invested in the outcome of this foodstuff being!