Blaire Cooks Up a Plan

American Girl: Blaire #2

by Jennifer Castle

Readers got to know American Girl's 2019 Girl of the Year in her first novel. The girl's exciting story moves forward in this second book.

Genres: Middle Grade, Contemporary, Childrens, School, Chapter Books, Friendship, Fiction

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 26, 2018

About the author

Jennifer Castle received her B.A. in Creative Writing at Brown University and worked as a celebrity publicist’s assistant, an advertising copywriter, and a struggling screenwriter (yes, that’s an actual job) before falling into a niche producing websites for kids and teens. Her debut, THE BEGINNING OF AFTER, was a 2012 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection as well as a Chicago Public Library "Best of the Best" book. YOU LOOK DIFFERENT IN REAL LIFE was a 2015 Florida Teens Read selection. Her most recent novel, WHAT HAPPENS NOW, was published in June 2016. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley with her husband and daughters.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers who don't mind somewhat spoiled main characters and who can employ some hearty suspension of disbelief should be satisfied with Blaire Cooks Up a Plan. Alas, I did not find it great. (Also, kind of an awkward title.)

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally, Blaire’s plan doesn’t seem to me to be the best community service project, even if it did lead to greater things. The sub-plot about home renovations was a bit odd as well.

[Ellen Sun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because Blaire never gives up. I learned a lot from Blaire about cooking.

[Mya Doberstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It talks about helping people in need. I really recommend this book to other girls my age.

[Shani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really hoping I'd like this more. I'd heard good things, and it looked like it would be better. I'm happy to say I was right.

It seemed to take me a little to get into it, but once I did, I liked it. This story was not as busy as the first, and I really liked that. It had more than one plotline, some subplots, but nothing that was too much. I'll admit that I wasn't crazy about the part with the renovation show, but for me it wasn't too in-my-face, unlike the wedding plot of the last book. I still don't think it was necessary to include such a thing (and I don't find it completely realistic), but I can see where it was used well. I really appreciate the scene where she turns down going with Marco. SO much. It showed how she was learning, and it was like it was a turning point in how I viewed the story. I also liked Marco's story of his dad's business.)

I also really liked the food insecurity theme, and how it handled her trying to get to know Eli. Over all, I really liked it. Again, sure it had flaws, but it was enjoyable in it's entirety.

[Karen Ebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this heartfelt story about Blaire making a difference... ❤️

[Alexia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect follow up to Blaire's first book! I love how it highlights community involvement Blaire gets to see that even a small effort such as choosing to make sauce for a food panty or donating clothes can make a huge impact. Blaire also learns that everyone struggles with something just as she struggles with living with a dairy allergy. I love the recipes in the back and can't wait to try them!

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much better sequel after a flat, uninspired first book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

And it had recipies!

[Joey Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blaire’s class at school is having a big community celebration event, encouraging the children to give back to their community. Blaire helps by donating clothes to the helping hand centre but soon finds there so much more she can do to help the people that go there and her project becomes very big.

This was wonderful it was all about helping, caring and giving back. Blaire has such an adventurous spirit, always something cooking in her mind and I love how she used it to her advantage to ensure she helped others. She creates so many different ways to provide help, to give back to the people in her community that needed food, that needed to know how to cook enjoyable recipes.

I love Blaire so much she’s honestly such an incredible character, I enjoyed learning about Eli, though his story wasn’t actually what I was expecting it would be, I did enjoy how he opened up to Blaire, how he helped her and the community too. Thea was so so funny in this one and I was happy that she and Blaire were friends the whole time in this one. I also loved little Abby she was so precious, Blaire became a big sister to her.

I honestly could read so many more books on Blaire, on the farm, on her community and it’s sad she only got two books. I love reading about what’s she’s up too, what’s going on at the farm, the story was open to so many additional books it’s really sad we didn’t get them.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blaire is a 10 year old in 2019. She is a fearless people person and leader. She is dairy free and is learning to cope with the situation while still cooking for others at her family’s bed and breakfast just outside of the city of Bluefield. Blaire faces many challenges like meeting new kids from other states and helping celebrities on interior design missions! There are so many mystery’s, will Blare succeed with Operation Awesome Sauce? What will happen to Abby and her money suffering father? I was inspired by every word in this book and will definitely be finding a number 3 of Blaire’s story! I loved that the book was about a doll that any young girl can have and/or aspire to be! This is a fictional book that I would recommend for any girl or boy from the ages 8-14.

[Denise Kettering · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blaire and her class have to do a community service project at their school and, of course, Blaire comes up with a big plan and then has to enlist her whole class in her vision. I liked how this book handled the issue of food insecurity and the need to constantly keep showing up in service work rather than doing it once and moving on to the next thing. I also appreciated that Blaire had to say "no" to something she really wanted to do in order to fulfill a responsibility. I find Blaire to be a bit exhausting or maybe spoiled as a character with all of her ideas that she gets caught up in that she doesn't quite get how much work she always putting on other people. Overall, I found this book more enjoyable than the first installment in the series because of some of the themes.

[Eva B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full series review for Blaire:
I'm not gonna lie, Blaire is one of those GOTYs who I didn't even know existed--I think the last one I remember going "oh wow, that's the GOTY!" was Lea, and I think most of why I remember her is bc she was the GOTY the first (and so far only, though hopefully that'll change) time I went to the American Girl store in Chicago. That being said, I really enjoyed Blaire's story and I think that if I was around her age when it was released/I read it I would have felt very seen. I don't have the dietary restrictions she has outside of mild lactose intolerance that I pretty much just ignore, but there was a year or so where I was on a "lectin-free" diet (which did nothing to help me at all) and her feelings of being embarrassed about having to have special food or meals at big events and not being able to eat her favorites (as well as the classic lactose intolerant moment of "I will eat this grilled cheese anyways [instantly gets sick]") hit home for me. The second book also delves into the issue of food insecurity and how poverty makes eating--let alone healthy eating--difficult as Blaire pitches in to help her community.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot going on, but I would have loved this as a kid. Blaire meets a new kid at school and tries to make friends, she encounters her design idol and work with him on a project, she has a community service project for school that takes her to a food pantry and has her planning to make special veggie pasta sauce to distribute. There's goats in pajamas, dandelion chickens, overcommitting, and food allergies.

A solid realistic fiction episode.

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second book had a lot of similarities to the first. It seemed a bit more disjointed in the plot though, like there would be a chapter on the room design, then switch to wanting to work on the community food bank project, etc. Not that dissimilar to a tween's thought patterns though so I guess it worked ok. lol... I just felt like there were so many topics mentioned and few of them really developed into anything. The kids all liked it fine.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a really great book. I loved how Blaire brought her class together to help out the community. I liked watching her befriend Abby and the new kid too, and learn that even small actions can help in a huge way. Even if they don’t necessarily lead way to higher ways to help. But that you need to keep showing up if you’re going to get the results you want.

[Janelle Hackbarth · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "Blaire", I knew I had to read the sequel.

I really enjoyed this sequel, seeing Blaire's class decide what Community Service project to do. The new characters, Eli and Abby, was really interesting to learn about.

This story was a great sequel to "Blaire" and I hope this is followed up by a 3rd "Blaire" book.

[William Jeanes Memorial Library]

Blaire Cooks Up a Plan was an easy read based on the American Girl Doll series. Although this book was not challenging, it was made up in the story line. Blaire had to learn to balance the fun in life with everything she had to do. Blaire also had to learn how to make the world a better place.
-Patron E.H.

[Adam Wuertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book with my 8 year old. It is well written and does a great job of keeping focused. The themes are mostly around how to show up as a friend, be present, and time management. Or what is known as "opportunity cost" in economics. My daughter found Blaire inspiring. We would recommend this to any young kid whether they are into AG or not.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a nice book. It has a theme of helping others, from friends to community. The book reminds us that no amount of helping is too small, even when we think it is. It teaches about kindness and awareness for what others might be going through.

[irene del mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not compelling, either. Blaire’s not any better. I really don’t like her personality. She doesn’t seem to face consequences for any of her actions and is often inconsiderate. No characters have real depth except for Eli. At least they address the very real problem of food insecurity.

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really cute book that teaches empathy to grade schoolers in an accessible way. Blaire has her own problems (such as her lactose intolerance), but she learns that others have issues, too, and that by helping them out, she can feel good about herself and not so alone.

[Cate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book!

[Sherri Savasta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, really hoping they put out more Blaire stories!

[Lucy Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book

[Suja · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book

[aem · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great heartwarming story showing empathy and community service.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super fun quick book about an American girl and her fun life. She took so much for her community project and it worked!

[Mckenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book!!

[Faith Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although charming, sweet, and even inspirational in some areas, the book was ridiculously, annoyingly unreal in others.