PEACE, LOVE AND CUPCAKES is the first book in the new series The Cupcake Club by Sheryl Berk & Carrie Berk, a mother-daughter writing team. This series is going to be perfect for kids in the grade 4 and 5 age range as it revolves around Kylie, a grade four student.

Kylie has only been at her Connecticut school for a year, and grade four is just as awful as grade 3. Meredith, a popular girl at school, won’t stop making fun of her and saying cruel things and Kylie’s favourite teacher is moving. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, the new drama teacher turns out to be not so bad, and invites Kylie to help her put together a baking club. Gathering three other “outsiders” to the club, Kylie, Lexi, Sadie and Jenna soon go from a baking club to a cupcake club, selling cupcakes and banding together against Meredith and her bullying.

PEACE, LOVE AND CUPCAKES showcases wonderful character voices – Kylie and her friends talk and behave very much like many of the grade fours I know, and while they try to act as mature as possible they are still kids, and make mistakes. Though Meredith is a bully, Sheryl and Carrie Berk do a good job of showing the readers that Meredith is still a child as well, and as her own insecurities and confusion about her place in school. The obstacles that Kylie and the Cupcake Club have to overcome and quite realistic and will keep you turning the pages to figure out what will happen next, and if the girls will make the right choices.

Although a little skeptical that ten year olds would be able to handle the pressure and workload needed to run not just a Cupcake Club but a business, it is easy to set aside that skepticism and just enjoy reading about four grade four girls that manage to start up a successful cupcake selling business quite by accident. PEACE, LOVE AND CUPCAKES is a wonderful start to a fun new series, and the cupcake recipes found at the end of the book will allow for some sweet adventures in the kitchen while waiting for book two to hit shelves.

Originally posted at Escape Through the Pages with a 4.5 our of 5 rating.