Cupcake Fix: A Branches Book (Layla and the Bots #3)

Layla and the Bots #3

by Vicky Fang, Christine Nishiyama (Illustrator)

Layla and the Bots are building a SWEET new invention! Pick a book. Grow a Reader!This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!Blossom Valley is opening a new community center! But they need to generate buzz for the grand opening. Layla and the Bots know how to they will build a cupcake machine for the party! But will their invention be a piece of cake... or a recipe for disaster? With full-color artwork on every page, speech bubbles throughout, and a fun DIY activity that readers can try at home, this early chapter book series brings kid-friendly STEAM topics to young readers!

Genres: Childrens, Science Fiction, Food, Stem

80 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2021

About the author

Vicky Fang is the author of the Layla and the Bots chapter books series, the Best Buddies early reader series, the I Can Code board book series, and the picture book Invent-a-Pet. She is the author-illustrator of Friendbots, AlphaBot, and the forthcoming Ava Lin and One Mad Cat series. A former Google product designer, she now writes and illustrates children’s books full-time. Vicky Fang lives in California. You can learn more at vickyfang.com.

Reviews

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Layla discovers the value of thorough quality assurance testing after crafting a cupcake making machine for the town community centre. The machine doesn’t perform quite right when a user, the mayor, picks three toppings for her cupcake, instead of the one topping the machine is coded for.

[Julianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it is a good way of learning about science and reading.
I also really liked the way the art style looked.💙🩵💚

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The new community center is having a grand opening but the mayor is worried that no one will come. Layla comes to the rescue and comes up with the idea that food always attracts people, and so in order to determine what food they should offer to draw the most people in, they take a survey. Their survey concludes that cupcakes are the most popular choice and so they set about to make a cupcake machine. Through trial #1, they create a cupcake but it's a little boring. They go out and do some more research and seek out advice from a baker and come back to revamp their machine with trial #2. As they run the machine with it's toppings improvement, something goes wrong and the machine goes crazy. They problem solve again, and adjust the coding, and trial #3 gives them the sweet results they are seeking.

Another great book in this series highlighting problem solving skills, STEM, math elements (surveys), research and development and coding, to name a few.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Whenever Layla and the bots get together, awesome things happen.”

The town of Blossom Valley is opening a new Community Center, but Mayor Diaz is worried because there are only 20 people signed up to attend the Grand Opening. So Layla and her bots, Bop, Boop, and Beep, get to work to try to get more people interested in coming. They decide food is the best option, so they create a survey to find out what food the townspeople would most like to have at the Grand Opening.

Cupcakes is the answer, so the group goes about inventing a Cupcake Machine that will produce cupcakes and give each person the option of choosing the topping they want. But something goes wrong in their computer code and frosting shoots out all over Mayor Diaz. Will they be able to fix the code in time for the Grand Opening?

Won a NERDIE in the early reader category in 2021.

[Brooke - TheBrookeList · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptional early reader with great writing, stem concepts, problem-solving, fun, and rock stars! What's not to like? Vicky Fang introduces us to wonderful characters, bots with awesome skills, and the steps of designing, building, and coding powerful machines. I'd certainly love a cupcake machine, and most children will be dreaming of the spectacular machines they could build themselves. We enjoyed the teaching at the end about similes, the clear and simple illustrations, and the bits of actual coding language mixed in. The additional stem project at the end to build a robot arm looks like all kinds of fun.

Checked out at the library & reviewed in consideration for Cybils Award Early Chapter book shortlist for 2021.

[Becky B · Rating 5 out of 5]

The new community center is about to open, and it is a fabulous space, but the mayor is worried no one will use it. Can Layla and the bots figure out a way to draw people to the grand opening?

There's some really solid business tactics employed in this story as well as basic computer programming and invention problem solving. I loved the use of graphs to represent the data collected from surveys, and how Layla and the Bots persevere until they have a working solution. Such good little models for lower grade readers, and the attractive graphic novel format and clever writing make it all a lot of fun too. This whole series is highly recommended for anyone looking for a solid STEAM read.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Layla's hometown, Blossom Valley, a new community center is opening up. But they need to get people excited about the grand opening. Layla and the Bots are helping the best way they know how, by building a cupcake machine!

The third book in the early reader's chapter book series was just as exciting to my seven-year-old as the previous books. We read it together, with him doing all the reading. Which was made very easy by the high-contrasting text bubbles. The cute illustrations made the story fun, and the plot was simple but effective in keeping us entertained.

[Aolund · Rating 4 out of 5]

An appealing early graphic novel full of coding concepts. Layla (depicted with brown skin and a cloud of wavy black hair) and her robot friends Beep, Boop, and Bop, save the day when the community center's opening party has a paltry number of Yes RSVPs. By building and coding a make-your-own cupcake machine, they make the opening party the place to be. More challenging than an Easy Reader, this book would be better for a kid who is starting on first chapter books.

Age range: Early elementary

[Maria Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this third book, Layla and her band of bots are scheduled to play for the grand opening of the community center. But when only twelve people confirm, the band uses cooking, coding, and STEM to build a solution and make it a grand opening concert. Really run STEAM chapter series!

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kindergarten to 2nd grade.
Fun pictures. Thinking about an idea, making, re-vising and fun science skills are part of the plot. The bots are great pals and have fun personalities. My 5 year old loved the story about making a cupcake machine that can ice and decorate the cupcakes for the party!

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m seriously crazy about this series!

[Kris Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I know Branches books are designed to support independent reading, Cupcake Fix would make an outstanding K-2 read aloud - problem solving, computational thinking, and community service!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like it how do you stories make using a scientific method for problem solving fun.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both my 6 year old and 4 year old were super into this one!

[Dena Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Layla and this clever, fresh, engaging series!

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd grade reading level. love the amount of illustrations.