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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
13 year old girl with cystic fibrosis is an expert baker. It'd be a good read for preteens-teens.
This was a decent book, and I really enjoyed the first half. But it got super dramatic in the second half - the stuff with Amelie's health was a fine addition to the book because that made sense with the story, but there was one big thing that happened that seemed unnecessarily dramatic. I also felt like the book ended rather abruptly.
Received from NetGalley.
Received from NetGalley.
Originally published on www.serendipityreviews.co.uk
I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did. In fact, I was completely bowled over by it. Where do I start with the abundance of praise I have for it?
Let’s start with Amelie. She is one feisty girl who won’t let her medical condition stand in her way. Even though she is constantly putting her life at risk. Amelie has Cystic Fibrosis. I have to be honest and admit to knowing very little about the illness. Before reading this book, I was aware that it had something to do with the lungs and involved a lot of physio. This book really opened my eyes to the condition and I was surprised by how much I learned while reading.The effects of the disease on the lungs and stomach were eye opening. Poor Amelie, spent most of the book, constantly trying to find enough energy to keep going. Everything we do we take for granted and this book made me appreciate my health.
The story is well written and goes off at a steady pace. There are touches of humour mixed in with moments of sadness, that really bring the book to life. I basically read this book in two days. I found myself constantly creeping back to it to read it.
I felt the book was extremely in fashion with the interests of society today. With The Great British Bake Off still as popular as ever, it was easy to imagine Amelie being picked to enter a baking competition for kids. I loved the recipes scattered between the chapters. I found myself constantly drooling. This book should come with at least one cupcake, to make reading it easier.
This is the first book I’ve read by Vanessa Curtis but I am positive it won’t be the last. A beautiful blend of humour and sadness. A book that will have you reaching for your spatula before you know it.
I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did. In fact, I was completely bowled over by it. Where do I start with the abundance of praise I have for it?
Let’s start with Amelie. She is one feisty girl who won’t let her medical condition stand in her way. Even though she is constantly putting her life at risk. Amelie has Cystic Fibrosis. I have to be honest and admit to knowing very little about the illness. Before reading this book, I was aware that it had something to do with the lungs and involved a lot of physio. This book really opened my eyes to the condition and I was surprised by how much I learned while reading.The effects of the disease on the lungs and stomach were eye opening. Poor Amelie, spent most of the book, constantly trying to find enough energy to keep going. Everything we do we take for granted and this book made me appreciate my health.
The story is well written and goes off at a steady pace. There are touches of humour mixed in with moments of sadness, that really bring the book to life. I basically read this book in two days. I found myself constantly creeping back to it to read it.
I felt the book was extremely in fashion with the interests of society today. With The Great British Bake Off still as popular as ever, it was easy to imagine Amelie being picked to enter a baking competition for kids. I loved the recipes scattered between the chapters. I found myself constantly drooling. This book should come with at least one cupcake, to make reading it easier.
This is the first book I’ve read by Vanessa Curtis but I am positive it won’t be the last. A beautiful blend of humour and sadness. A book that will have you reaching for your spatula before you know it.
This was a cute middle-grade read about a girl who wants nothing more than to follow her dreams. The main reason to pick up this book is for the food descriptions. Every time I would sit down with this book I’d end up hungry. Even the scrambled eggs sounded heavenly.
I did have some trouble with Amelie only being 13. It felt like the story was centered around someone a little older, but she spoke like she was younger. There weren’t a lot of details, like around her boyfriend Harry or her best friend, and I really feel like those could have been fleshed out a little more.
The ending was incredibly abrupt and caught me off-guard. Everything wrapped up so fast and soap-operaish that I think my head spun. It’s a cute and quick read, but not one that I’d overly recommend.
I did have some trouble with Amelie only being 13. It felt like the story was centered around someone a little older, but she spoke like she was younger. There weren’t a lot of details, like around her boyfriend Harry or her best friend, and I really feel like those could have been fleshed out a little more.
The ending was incredibly abrupt and caught me off-guard. Everything wrapped up so fast and soap-operaish that I think my head spun. It’s a cute and quick read, but not one that I’d overly recommend.
How does her story end? I really liked this, but I want more! It's so good!
Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.
Although I'm not generally a fan of young fiction, with it's brilliant eye-catching cover and intriguing blurb, I just had to give The Baking Life of Amelie Day by Vanessa Curtis a read. And it's such a sweet (pardon the pun!) story!
Amelie lives to bake. It's all she thinks about; constantly trying to come up with new recipes and twists on old ones, and counts down the minutes until she can bake again. When she gets into the quarter finals of Britain's Best Teen Baker of the year, she is absolutely thrilled. If she wins the competition, it could help set her on her way towards the career in baking she wants! There's just one problem; Amelie has Cystic Fibrosis, and seems to be steadily getting worse. She has trouble breathing and is prone to lung infections. Her Mum is adamant she is far too ill to travel to London to take part in the competition. But this is Amelie's dream - she can't not go!
There is obviously a lot of baking in this book as baking is Amelie's whole life. However, the focus is a lot more on Amelie's Cystic Fibrosis. Her CF is what keeps her from baking and going to school sometimes. Her CF is what has her being late for classes because she can't rush or she'll end up out of breath and start a huge coughing fit. Her CF is why she is so small and slim, because it affects her digestive system - meaning Amelie can eat as much as she wants, because she needs to put on the weight. I didn't know too much about CF before reading Amelie Day, and I was shocked by some of the things I discovered about this genetic condition, like sufferers are lucky if they make it to 40, because there's no cure. Despite how terrible the condition is, Curtis doesn't bog the book down with medical terms or make it too depressing, but it is honest about what CF sufferers go through. It talks about how Amelie will eventually need a lung transplant, and that she has to have a feeding tube put in to help her gain weight. It's educational without being scary.
When it comes to baking, Amelie really knows her stuff. There are a lot of various cakes, biscuits and pastries baked in this book, and she talks through each one, explaining techniques like creaming, and discussing various ingredients and which are better to use. It even includes Amelie's own recipes, which are just awesome! They're not just bog-standard recipes, they've been written by Amelie herself, in her own voice, so they're entertaining to read as well as the story, and easy enough to follow for 8-12-year olds to follow. I used to bake a bit when I was younger, and reading Amelie Day brought all the memories back, and got me excited to start baking again! I am actually going to be trying out one of Amelie's recipes later this week!
As well as CF and baking, there are some moral themes to Amelie Day; doing what you want against doing what you're told. About being responsible, and how your actions can affect others. Its a short novel at 171 pages, but there's quite a lot to take from it.
If there was a negative side to Amelie Day, it would be that it's just a little too young for me, but that's just my personal taste, and I'm not technically the target audience. For those 8-12 year olds, The Baking Life of Amelie Day is a really awesome story!
Thank you to Curious Fox for the review copy.
Although I'm not generally a fan of young fiction, with it's brilliant eye-catching cover and intriguing blurb, I just had to give The Baking Life of Amelie Day by Vanessa Curtis a read. And it's such a sweet (pardon the pun!) story!
Amelie lives to bake. It's all she thinks about; constantly trying to come up with new recipes and twists on old ones, and counts down the minutes until she can bake again. When she gets into the quarter finals of Britain's Best Teen Baker of the year, she is absolutely thrilled. If she wins the competition, it could help set her on her way towards the career in baking she wants! There's just one problem; Amelie has Cystic Fibrosis, and seems to be steadily getting worse. She has trouble breathing and is prone to lung infections. Her Mum is adamant she is far too ill to travel to London to take part in the competition. But this is Amelie's dream - she can't not go!
There is obviously a lot of baking in this book as baking is Amelie's whole life. However, the focus is a lot more on Amelie's Cystic Fibrosis. Her CF is what keeps her from baking and going to school sometimes. Her CF is what has her being late for classes because she can't rush or she'll end up out of breath and start a huge coughing fit. Her CF is why she is so small and slim, because it affects her digestive system - meaning Amelie can eat as much as she wants, because she needs to put on the weight. I didn't know too much about CF before reading Amelie Day, and I was shocked by some of the things I discovered about this genetic condition, like sufferers are lucky if they make it to 40, because there's no cure. Despite how terrible the condition is, Curtis doesn't bog the book down with medical terms or make it too depressing, but it is honest about what CF sufferers go through. It talks about how Amelie will eventually need a lung transplant, and that she has to have a feeding tube put in to help her gain weight. It's educational without being scary.
When it comes to baking, Amelie really knows her stuff. There are a lot of various cakes, biscuits and pastries baked in this book, and she talks through each one, explaining techniques like creaming, and discussing various ingredients and which are better to use. It even includes Amelie's own recipes, which are just awesome! They're not just bog-standard recipes, they've been written by Amelie herself, in her own voice, so they're entertaining to read as well as the story, and easy enough to follow for 8-12-year olds to follow. I used to bake a bit when I was younger, and reading Amelie Day brought all the memories back, and got me excited to start baking again! I am actually going to be trying out one of Amelie's recipes later this week!
As well as CF and baking, there are some moral themes to Amelie Day; doing what you want against doing what you're told. About being responsible, and how your actions can affect others. Its a short novel at 171 pages, but there's quite a lot to take from it.
If there was a negative side to Amelie Day, it would be that it's just a little too young for me, but that's just my personal taste, and I'm not technically the target audience. For those 8-12 year olds, The Baking Life of Amelie Day is a really awesome story!
Thank you to Curious Fox for the review copy.
This book tells the story of thirteen-year-old Amelie, who lives with cystic fibrosis and loves to bake more than anything else in the world. Amelie`s voice in the first-person narrative really drew me in, and I had huge sympathy for her throughout the book, even though I thought a lot of her decisions were quite selfish. I thought this book dealt with Amelie`s condition well and I found it very educational as I hadn’t really known a lot about cystic fibrosis or how it affects the lives of young people before I started this. Another thing I enjoyed about this book was that it contained recipes throughout. However, as a blogger myself, I found Amelie`s pretty much overnight blogging success quite unrealistic, and I would have preferred a more concrete ending as the book was quite short and the ending was very abrupt. 3.5/5
Omg read this book!
It was so beautifully written and full of delicious cakes.
It was so beautifully written and full of delicious cakes.