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All Four Stars: 06/07/17
All Four Stars by Tara Dairman opens with a kitchen fire. Gladys Gatsby loves homemade meals. Her parents don't cook unless it involves heating things up in the microwave. Since she's a latchkey kid, she's been able to bake and cook unsupervised. But then she gets carried away and tries to make crème brûlée but she doesn't have the right kind of torch. Gladys wants nothing more than to cook but she now finds herself forbidden from her favorite pastime. She's told she must do "normal things" like play video games, watch TV. Throughout this hilarious introduction to her parents, I couldn't help but imagine Laika's interpretation of Coraline's parents. Gladys's class is given an assignment to write an essay for a statewide competition. With prompting from her teacher, she ends up writing an essay that reads like cover letter for a job. It's so convincing, that the essay gets rerouted to the HR department and she's hired to write a freelance review of a soon to open boutique dessert shop. The remainder of the book is Gladys trying to scheme her way into the boutique to write her review without letting her parents know and without breaking the rules they've set for her. Throughout the book I enjoyed Gladys's pluckiness. She's resourceful like Claudia Kincaid. She's a bit of a loner like Willow Chance, with an adult support crew like Heidi in So B. It. The next in the series is The Stars of Summer. Five stars Comments (4) Comment #1: Thursday, June 08, 2017 at 03:13:55 I'd like to know how it all ends. Hopefully well. Comment #2: Friday, June 08, 2017 at 07:35:00 Pussreboots It ends well but there are enough big tangents that if I told you more, I'd be giving away spoilers. Comment #3: Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 14:48:54 I think my daughter would LOVE this one. She loves cooking so much :) Comment #4: Wednesday, June 20, 2017 at 16:58:00 Pussreboots It's the start of a series and I plan to read the rest of the books as soon as I can. My daughter also loves cooking.
1997-2025 Sarah Sammis |
