Katie Starting from Scratch

Cupcake Diaries #21

by Coco Simon

When Katie brings her maybe-someday stepsister to Cupcake Club, she gets her first taste of sibling rivalry—and it’s not very sweet!Katie’s mom asks Katie for a huge will she spend some time with Emily, her boyfriend’s daughter? Katie agrees and brings Emily to a Cupcake Club meeting. Things go well—almost too well. Everyone likes Emily so much, Katie wonders if her friends like Emily more than they like her! And if her mom marries Emily’s dad, will Emily become her favorite daughter? Katie is an only child, so all this sibling stuff is new to her. She’s starting from scratch!

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Fiction, Juvenile

Paperback

First published August 12, 2014

About the author

Coco Simon always dreamed of opening a cupcake bakery, but she’s afraid she would eat all the profits. When she’s not daydreaming about cupcakes, Coco edits children’s books and has written close to 100 books for children, tweens, and young adults, which is a lot less than the number of cupcakes she’s eaten. Cupcake Diaries is the first time Coco has mixed her love of cupcakes with writing.

Reviews

[Pooja Banga · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Katie brings her maybe-someday stepsister to Cupcake Club, she gets her first taste of sibling rivalry—and it’s not very sweet!

Katie’s mom asks Katie for a huge favor: will she spend some time with Emily, her boyfriend’s daughter? Katie agrees and brings Emily to a Cupcake Club meeting. Things go well—almost too well. Everyone likes Emily so much, Katie wonders if her friends like Emily more than they like her! And if her mom marries Emily’s dad, will Emily become her favorite daughter? Katie is an only child, so all this sibling stuff is new to her. She’s starting from scratch!

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Katie's mom wants Katie to spend more time with Emily but she didn't know that would turn into more than a week! Emily is spending time with the Cupcake Club and everyone seems to like her more than they like Katie. Emily just seems perfect to Katie. She eats clean, she has a clean room, she's polite, good at basketball. Even her crush George is being super nice and Katie starts to think he likes Emily better than her too. But she talks to her friends and they are being nice because Emily is their friend's mom's boyfriend's daughter. They do like Emily but not more than each other. Meanwhile Alexis is acting strange and her friends reveal her secret of she's going to sing in a talent show! Her voice is amazing and everyone applauds her. I recommend this book for ages 6+. I probably won't reread this book cause I have so many books on my TBR pile.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katie's mom is dating with a math teacher in Katie's school. She asks Katie a favor, can she take some time with Emily? Katie brings Emily to a Cupcake meeting. Then her mom asks her to take more and more time with Emily. Katie thinks it is too much. What will she do?
I like this book because Katie and Emily are two differnt people so you have know idea how they are going to get along. I would recommend this book to people who have parents dating or people who like reading about cupcakes!

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The theme of the book is jealousy Katie has to babysit her younger maybe sister but, Emily is very clean. She doesn't eat weirdly and is very pretty her mom seems to like her a lot and Katie is afraid of being replaced. She gets madder when everyone talks about Emily and has to bring her to the cupcakes club. Turns out Emily is also good t the kitchen she took some classes with her Dad Mr. green....

[Zoha Munshipalkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katie Starting from Scratch is a great book for all ages. When Katie brings her maybe-someday stepsister to Cupcake Club, she gets her first taste of sibling rivalry—and it's not very sweet! Katie's mom asks Katie for a huge favor: will she spend some time with Emily, her boyfriend's daughter? I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it.

[Kaitlyn Zambrana]

Fun!

[Mailinh]

Ughhh Katie can be so annoyingggg, anyways I really liked the ending(the talent show:Alex singing:slayyy slayyy lol)

[Éline Alleau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je le suis bien identifié à Katie, car j'ai aussi une belle sœur qui est un peu parfaite.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“‘Would your mom become Mrs. Brown-Green? That sounds like a new color in a big crayon box.’”
-
I think this is my last reread from this series, and then I’ll be reading the next books for the first time. Anyways, in this book, Katie feels very jealous of her mom’s boyfriend’s daughter, Emily. I think this is understandable, with the ways everyone is trying to treat Emily the best, but in turn making Katie feel like she is constantly being compared. Her friends aren’t the most sympathetic, even though she doesn’t tell them how she’s feeling. Spending more time with Emily and Jeff/Mr. Green is also a big life change for her. Also, George is so sweet!

[Felicity Pickle · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know, I was judged by a friend for checking out Cupcake Diary books from our public library as a high schooler, but I have literally no shame. These books are so cute and if my mother can read Enid Blyton as an adult, I will be reading Coco Simon on my deathbed.

EDIT: I was cleaning up my computer, and I found this gem of a letter I ACTUALLY SENT to Coco Simon when I was 9:

Dear Coco Simon,
I love your books The Cupcakes Diaries. I love Alexis, Katie Mia and Emma. If they weren’t so different, the entire series would be completely different. Your books keep me on edge. I can’t think of a time when I wanted to put your books down.
Your books changed me because I used to not like baking cupcakes, but now that I see what the girls come up with, I want to eat all of those cupcakes mentioned in the books! Your books also cracked me up. I love the description of Special Day and I always enjoy the books from Alexis’s point of view because I love Dylan.
I hope you keep writing books because I sure will keep reading them. Your books are great and I enjoy them a lot. I love your books and I always will.

Aaaah to be a child...

[Maria . · Rating 2 out of 5]

** --- 2 stars for " it was okay." --**
I guess, for a cupcake diary book, this was good. Mainly fluff, but fun to read. Realistic and interesting, good mix!
What I liked: As I said above, interesting and realistic. Good enough.
What I didn't like: One thing that ticked me off was that Katie was eating out an unrealistic amount of times, most people don't have that much money.
Conclusion: fine.

[Christine Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am still enjoying this series, but found it extremely annoying that every time a meal was mentioned, salad was part of it. Not once or twice--every time. I like salad. I'm not hating on salad. I just found it weird and really annoying--are we so worried about childhood obesity that we don't want to promote girls eating cupcakes without making sure that they are also eating salad at every meal? Okay, rant over.

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yada yada.

[소피아 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is nicely written

[Dayanara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will give it 5 stars because they are so intresting and fun to read about girls doing good cupcakes

[Atlas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonne lecture ! Très doux et mignon sans prise de tête.
Lecture pour un public jeunesse mais j'aime bien les lire, ça change complètement de ce que je lis habituellement.

[Caroline Jkb · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai parfois le même problème que toi, Katie

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book fine. It’s in the cupcake diaries series, and I think it was decent. I didn’t love the way Katie’s personality was shown in this book though, because I think they made her seem brattier and more annoying then she is in the other books, where she is really sweet and nice. Overall, it was an okay book and I would read it again.