Dodging Cupcakes
Laura Pashley
STEMpire Press (2024)
ISBN: 979-8218961749
Reviewed by Diana Coyle for Reader Views (11/2024)
Mindy Bright, a very spirited seventh grade twelve-year-old, has moved to her father’s town in Illinois in “Dodging Cupcakes: A STEM Adventure” by Laura Pashley. She isn’t looking forward to starting a new school and making new friends. The first day on the school bus turns out to be nothing short of a rough start at her new school. When a wad of gum gets spit into her hair, Mindy is ready to call it a day even though she hasn’t even made it to school yet.
But when she enters Korn Wotel School and sees signs about the annual Fall Carnival, ideas start coming to mind as she finds out the students have to come up with ideas for either the Game Booths or Food Booths. She’s paired with a boy named Charlie, who wants to do a Cake Decorating booth because his dad owns Robitini’s Bakery and he’ll have no problem getting all the baking supplies.
But Mindy wants to do something more impressive than just making cupcakes for the carnival. So, she puts her mind to developing an idea to create a great game to convince Charlie to ditch the cupcake idea and have them create a fun game everyone would love to play at the carnival. What do Mindy and Charlie finally decide on doing for the Fall Carnival? Is their choice a success?
The first thing that stood out to this reviewer was how real the story felt for the readers to get lost in as they turned the pages. Preteen readers can relate to Mindy’s awkwardness of being twelve years old and having silly things happen to them like being picked on or even getting chewing gum thrown at them. For adults, it might make you recall when you were a seventh grader and the world felt like it was changing around you because you were getting older.
Another thing that really resonated with this reader was how Ms. Pashley incorporated not only STEM- inspired ideas throughout the story for her readers to enjoy, but kudos to her for making Mindy so interested in it in the first place. One rarely finds female characters showing that it’s cool to be smart and able to work with your hands. This is a great book for any reader to enjoy, but especially females who are smart and talented with working with their hands.
Laura Pashley was inspired to write her first book after she mentored students in robotics class. She saw how girls weren’t confident enough to take these STEM classes and what better way to assist girls in learning that the sky is the limit in whatever you set your mind to. This book definitely succeeds in teaching students ages 8 to 12, especially girls, that no matter what it is, you can achieve it if you put your mind to it.
“Dodging Cupcakes” by Laura Pashley is one book that comes highly recommended and is a wonderful story for readers, both male and female, to enjoy. Well done, Ms. Pashley!