A review by corncobwebs
Jeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake Cadets by Eric Luper

Well, I’m pretty much going to be a fan of any book where boys are dressed in drag. But personal biases aside, this was a quick, funny read. Jeremy Bender is obsessed with his dad’s antique Chris-Craft boat and wants to fix it up on the sly - if he can impress his dad, maybe he’ll be allowed to take the boat out himself. But the fixing up goes horribly wrong, and ends with the boat’s engine being flooded with two cans of soda and sprayed with sticky, corrosive green paint. Jeremy is horrified, and sets out to fix the engine without his dad finding out. Even though Jeremy may have the know-how to do the repairs, it’ll cost $500 to replace all the damaged parts - and that’s about $470 more than he has. So the scheming begins - how will he come up with that kind of cash before spring (and boating season) arrives? On a serendipitous trip to the public library with his friend Slater, Jeremy spots a flier for the “Windjammer Whirl” - a competition held by the local Cupcake Cadets (a thinly veiled version of the Girl Scouts) that’ll award $500 as the top prize. Jeremy figures that he can easily whip up a model boat that’ll cream the competition, which just leaves the not-so-small matter of passing as a Cupcake Cadet. Amazingly, Jeremy and Slater are able to pull off a successful gender swap...but then they proceed to (unintentionally) wreak havoc on every Cupcake Cadet activity they participate in. It doesn’t help when Margaret Parsley, a snotty Cadet with a mean competitive streak, finds out their secret and only agrees to keep quiet if the boys give her half the prize money (assuming they win the Windjammer Whirl). By the time they make it to the actual competition, their secret is hanging on by a thread - which finally snaps when Jeremy passes out just seconds away from victory, losing his wig and outing himself as a boy. Even though the prize money is history, Jeremy and Slater have a new friend in Margaret, who happens to be a Chris-Craft aficionado. This comes in handy when Jeremy finally comes clean to his dad and is ordered to repair the ruined engine - Margaret is more than happy to pitch in. So even though their original plan is a bust, Jeremy and Slater still end up with a passable solution to the whole boat debacle.

GREAT recommendation for upper-elementary boys who are looking for a funny book.