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A review by kateteaching7and8
Piper Cooks Up a Plan by Erin Soderberg Downing
4.0
@kidlitexchange #partner
Thank you to the @kidlitexchange network and the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.
Piper is a quirky and creative chef and food scientist. She loves experimenting in the kitchen and trying new things and often finds inspiration and strength by comparing herself to the Disney princess Tiana. In this book, Piper enters a televised cooking contest with a possible prize of $10,000. She really wants to win to prove to her parents that she's great at something too (her older brother is super smart and athletic and her younger sister is cute and funny, leaving Piper to feel like the messy leftover middle child). Additionally, she is worried about having to move because he dad is interviewing with a company in Chicago. Piper is under a lot of pressure in the book and Ms. Bancroft and the Daring Dreamers Club work to help her through it.
I loved how Piper views cooking as science (in fact she normally doesn't refer to it as cooking, but instead as food science) and her kitchen as a lab. I also think this book teaches some really important lessons: it's okay to ask for and accept help, helping others is important, and it's important to enjoy the journey/experience rather than focusing only on the end goal. Piper has a cute and quirky personality that a lot of kids can relate to. The connections to the princesses and the virtues and traits that each girl possesses was also a really neat element. The characters in the book are younger (5th grade) and the story is written a little young as well. While I think this book possesses themes relevant to any age of reader, I believe that younger middle grade readers (4-6 grade) would enjoy it most.
I did not read book one in the series, but this in no way impacted my enjoyment of the book. So far, this series seems to be set up in a way where each book can be read as a standalone novel or in order as a series.
Thank you to the @kidlitexchange network and the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.
Piper is a quirky and creative chef and food scientist. She loves experimenting in the kitchen and trying new things and often finds inspiration and strength by comparing herself to the Disney princess Tiana. In this book, Piper enters a televised cooking contest with a possible prize of $10,000. She really wants to win to prove to her parents that she's great at something too (her older brother is super smart and athletic and her younger sister is cute and funny, leaving Piper to feel like the messy leftover middle child). Additionally, she is worried about having to move because he dad is interviewing with a company in Chicago. Piper is under a lot of pressure in the book and Ms. Bancroft and the Daring Dreamers Club work to help her through it.
I loved how Piper views cooking as science (in fact she normally doesn't refer to it as cooking, but instead as food science) and her kitchen as a lab. I also think this book teaches some really important lessons: it's okay to ask for and accept help, helping others is important, and it's important to enjoy the journey/experience rather than focusing only on the end goal. Piper has a cute and quirky personality that a lot of kids can relate to. The connections to the princesses and the virtues and traits that each girl possesses was also a really neat element. The characters in the book are younger (5th grade) and the story is written a little young as well. While I think this book possesses themes relevant to any age of reader, I believe that younger middle grade readers (4-6 grade) would enjoy it most.
I did not read book one in the series, but this in no way impacted my enjoyment of the book. So far, this series seems to be set up in a way where each book can be read as a standalone novel or in order as a series.