Summary
The three books in this series follow two 4th grade cousins, Willow and Delia. Every year their extended family spends time at the Whispering Pines Inn in Saugatuck for vacation. The pair are best friends and love to bake. Throughout the series, the girls have adventures in and out of the kitchen. Often their efforts are to help those around them, but sometimes end up with some disastrous mistakes.
Book 1 – Cupcake Cousins
Aunt Rosie is getting married! Willow and Delia have to be flower girls in horrible fluffy pink dresses. They decide they will win over Aunt Rosie with their baking so she will ask them to be chefs for the wedding instead of flower girls. Unfortunately, they have a few mishaps along the way. The new chef of Whispering Pines, Cat, has her own problems and doesn’t need the two girls in the kitchen making trouble. Through a series of events, the girls end up realizing it’s more important to help others than be so focused on getting out of their flower girl duties.
Book 2 – Cupcake Cousins: Summer Showers
Aunt Rosie is having a baby. The family gets together once again in Whispering Pines to have a baby shower. Delia’s family bought the house next door to the inn and turned it into a cafe named Arts and Eats. Delia’s parents are doing better, but now the cafe doesn’t have the business they’d hoped for. Willow has a bad wrist injury from karate class and has been told not to bake in the kitchen. The girls are determined to save the cafe and bake for the baby shower.
Book 3 – Cupcake Cousins: Winter Wonders
Cat and Henry are getting married on Christmas Day! The whole family is invited to celebrate with Cat and Henry. Willow and Delia are asked to help bake all the desserts for the Wedding. Delia has been volunteering at the local food pantry all year and the annual Christmas breakfast is also on Christmas Day. In their usual fashion, the girls try to bake for both events, all the while planning the perfect wedding gift for Cat and Henry.
Reading Level:8-12 years old
Read A Loud Age: 7+
Mom Thoughts
This series is fun and follows many events during a few weeks with Willow and Delia. The girls don’t spend much time with their parents during the series and often will look to each other for help, support, or advice. The series is not too complicated and easy to follow. Aside from the details mentioned below, the books are pretty innocent and light-hearted. I’d advise talking to your child about trusting adults with the truth during hard situations and not keeping secrets, or not feeling like they must rely on themselves when they make a mistake or cannot follow through.
Luck becomes a large theme throughout the series. In the first book Willow has a lucky penny she wishes upon, then looks to the sky to wish upon a planet (star), finally wishing upon hummingbirds. The second book’s focus is that good luck and bad luck come in 3s. There is also mention of the girls wishing upon jewelry passed down to them from their grandma. The third book is all about Christmas magic. As a parent, I would want my child to know to pray in tough situations and trust that God is in control, not luck.
Divorce is addressed in the first book, Delia talks a lot about her parent’s relationship and how it has changed since her father has lost his job, her parents don’t end up divorcing, but it is a worry she has. She spends quite a bit of time worrying about finances and if they’ll have to move. In the second book, finances come up again because the cafe isn’t doing well yet. Delia is worried her family will have to move again. Delia puts the responsibility of saving the cafe on herself by entering desserts to win in the county fair.
In the first book, both girls are concerned with the chef, Cat, her life, and her financial worries. It seems that these girls are too young to need to worry about someone who they have only known for a couple of days.
Questionable Behaviors:
Throughout the series, the girls don’t tell the whole truth to their parents to keep their baking a secret. They don’t ever say that they are lying or that they know they are doing the wrong thing. They are justifying this behavior so that they are able to prove they can bake independently.
Throughout the third book, the girls lie to Cat about having the baking done and being ready for her wedding. They don’t call it lying, but they lie because they don’t want to let Cat down. Towards the end of the book, they lie to Cat again in hopes that they won’t ruin her wedding because they have to also host the food pantries’ Christmas breakfast at the last minute.
The girl’s grandpa helps them justify a lie they tell to their sisters about playing music for the baby shower in order to keep their sisters out of the kitchen.
Someone is stealing chef Cat’s vegetables and tomato sauce throughout the first book.
Willow eavesdrops on her mother and aunt’s conversation, she states that knows it’s wrong but she justifies it with needing to know what is going on.
Mr. Henry, the Inns’ caretaker, confides in these two girls and asks them to keep a secret for him. Please be cautious, I would be concerned that this would cause a child to think it’s okay for an adult to ask them to keep a secret, even though the secret in the book is harmless.
The girls are suspicious of Christmas Elves stealing the treats made for the wedding.
It’s often mentioned that the girls just need to “believe in themselves” to accomplish their goals in the books.
Language:
Grandpa whispers under his breath that Grandma is a fire-breathing snapdragon.
The word stupid is used in the context of doing things right “And not do anything stupid!”
Both girls call their big sisters “bossy” and “annoying” once in the third book.
Sexual Content:
Aunt Rosie and her Fiance, Jonathan, kiss. The older sisters have to get their bridesmaid dresses altered because they “developed over the summer”. Aunt Rosie is pregnant in the second book. Grandma and Grandpa talk about sharing a mistletoe kiss in the third book.
Other things to know:
The books mention vampires, fairies, pixie dust, fairy godmothers, magic wands, ghosts, witches at their cauldron, and the tooth fairy. There is no magic in the series, but these things are mentioned several times. Often the references are used in a way that an imaginative child would describe something or as a simile to describe a situation.
The girls each have an older sister who they find annoying and often don’t speak with kindness to each other throughout the series. Eye rolling is mentioned.
The third book is centered around Christmas. There are many references to Santa, elves, reindeer, Christmas magic, Santa hearing their conversations, the naughty and nice list, and that Christmas is all about giving, sharing, and doing good.
This review is written by Jessica Stout. To read more about Jessica, click HERE.
Cupcake Cousins (#1)
Summer Showers (#2)
Winter Wonders (#3)