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faithfulgirl4's review
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Are you a fan of the Amazon show, Just Add Magic?? If so, you'll love this book!
Do you enjoy baking or watching baking shows? Again, you'll love this book!
This was such a fun read!! Cat's going into the 8th grade and it's the last day before summer vacay ends. She's at the pool with her best friend and cousin, Robyn. They smell something so deliciously yummy that they can hardly stand it. Then this super cute boy walks by with a pretzel. You know the kind...dripping in butter with those little flakes of salt on it? THOSE kind...irrestible!! Cat goes and buys one but not before running into Tobey. All of a sudden, there's this spark. Oh, why can't summer last forever!!
Cat's mom doesn't ever bake. They eat frozen food all the time. Robyn's mom bakes all the time. They live next door to each other but Cat is never allowed to eat at Robyn's. Why all the craziness around that, wonders Cat? Her mom gets all up in arms anytime she's offered food at Robyn's. Then one day she eats at Tia's house and everything changes....
Can you Bake Believe it??
I loved this book from start to finish!! I love the series I mentioned previously but this book is pretty awesome too! This author has a great way of keeping even a non-baker like myself entertained. I mean, I love to bake and cook but my family doesn't appreciate my northern cooking style in their southern home. :) My favorite part of this book is the recipes at the end of each chapter. Along with all the helpful hints and tons of humor!! What fun is baking if it's not fun??
Enjoy this one folks but don't read when you're hungry! :)
Do you enjoy baking or watching baking shows? Again, you'll love this book!
This was such a fun read!! Cat's going into the 8th grade and it's the last day before summer vacay ends. She's at the pool with her best friend and cousin, Robyn. They smell something so deliciously yummy that they can hardly stand it. Then this super cute boy walks by with a pretzel. You know the kind...dripping in butter with those little flakes of salt on it? THOSE kind...irrestible!! Cat goes and buys one but not before running into Tobey. All of a sudden, there's this spark. Oh, why can't summer last forever!!
Cat's mom doesn't ever bake. They eat frozen food all the time. Robyn's mom bakes all the time. They live next door to each other but Cat is never allowed to eat at Robyn's. Why all the craziness around that, wonders Cat? Her mom gets all up in arms anytime she's offered food at Robyn's. Then one day she eats at Tia's house and everything changes....
Can you Bake Believe it??
I loved this book from start to finish!! I love the series I mentioned previously but this book is pretty awesome too! This author has a great way of keeping even a non-baker like myself entertained. I mean, I love to bake and cook but my family doesn't appreciate my northern cooking style in their southern home. :) My favorite part of this book is the recipes at the end of each chapter. Along with all the helpful hints and tons of humor!! What fun is baking if it's not fun??
Enjoy this one folks but don't read when you're hungry! :)
katierocks4's review
5.0
Bake Believe by Cori Cooper
Review by Kaitlyn Stewart
5/5 stars
This book is so cute! I love the recipes! I have written them down to try them! Cat Anderson's mom doesn't bake, nor does she cook. So when Cat is put into the culinary class, things start to get interesting. Cat is like my pre-teen sister. The way she talks and the way she acts, Cori did an amazing job making Cat into the perfect pre-teen. This story is not only funny, but it captures the essence of being a young girl.
Review by Kaitlyn Stewart
5/5 stars
This book is so cute! I love the recipes! I have written them down to try them! Cat Anderson's mom doesn't bake, nor does she cook. So when Cat is put into the culinary class, things start to get interesting. Cat is like my pre-teen sister. The way she talks and the way she acts, Cori did an amazing job making Cat into the perfect pre-teen. This story is not only funny, but it captures the essence of being a young girl.
jcmke0114's review
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a great YA book for anyone who likes magic and enjoyed Just Add Magic on Amazon Prime Video. This series has a great cast of characters. Cat is a middle school girl whose family never cooks or bakes, though she’s not sure why. After getting put into a Culinary class in school, Cat is told why and a family secret is revealed. For generations, Cat’s family (including her best friend Robyn who is her neighbor as well as the same age, and therefore the same grade) has been able to bake their emotions into their products. If you feel a certain way while baking, it gets added to the batter as if it were another ingredient. When someone eats the item, they feel the emotion. Nobody in the family is sure why this happens. Cat learns after a disastrous day of baking and sharing that you have to be careful what you wish for and what you bake into your treats.
dwinprincess's review
5.0
Cat is excited. Last day of summer, she and her cousing Robyn are going to make it EPIC!! They are starting 8th grade, last year of middle school, what can go wrong? Her mom never cooks/bakes. Microwave, frozen meals, waffles from the freezer and toasted. It's all good to Cat..... till it's not. This starts Cat down a road that she learns some life lessons and how powerful her feelings can be.
This is a great book, I loved it. I suggest you read it as soon as you can. Each chapter even has a recipe at the end for you to save and try. They are easy and look like they will taste like heaven!
Young Adult, Adult.... It's great for all! I love I will be keeping my eye out for more books by this author!!!
This is a great book, I loved it. I suggest you read it as soon as you can. Each chapter even has a recipe at the end for you to save and try. They are easy and look like they will taste like heaven!
Young Adult, Adult.... It's great for all! I love I will be keeping my eye out for more books by this author!!!
librarylaura's review
5.0
I enjoyed this story. It's like eating a warm cinnamon roll...cozy, delicious, and slightly magical. The premise of being able to make one's emotions into food is wild and makes for the perfect vehicle for conflict, self-discovery, and redemption in this sweet middle grade tale. I loved reading the recipes almost as much as the chapters themselves. Can Cori Cooper please write a cookbook?!
way2gosmartguy's review
5.0
Bake Believe is the first book I have read by Cori Cooper, but I would definitely read more. It was a super cute book, and even tho it is geared toward kids, I enjoyed it as an adult. I think it is a little long for my 11 year old to enjoy, but it is a cute book for those who like reading. It is written from the perspective of Cat, an 8th grader. She has never cooked for real in her life, as everything is microwaved in her home. Her first day of 8th grade lands her in a culinary class, due to a scheduling error. She assumes she will hate it, but turns out she LOVES it. She finds she enjoys baking, and her current crush is in that class, and her group, which is just icing on the cake. See what I did there? You will find lots of that in this book- There are recipes between each chapter, and they are written in the lingo of a teenager- TOTALLY, Super Duper, etc. I found that really fun and look forward to trying the actual recipes from this book.
bookwitch92's review
5.0
I loved reading this book. My daughter and I read it together. We laughed and cried at parts. The antics that the main character gets herself is crazy. We loved that it's a cook book too! We can't wait to try some of these out on our own! Looking forward to the sequel!
arthistorygirl's review
4.0
Bake Believe by Cori Cooper is a sweet read. I am always on the lookout for a cute book for my niece to read and this fits the bill. Cat Anderson is your normal middle-schooler ready for her first day of school. When her schedule goes array what does a young lady do? I love the realistic depiction of Cat and her friends. Also, how the author focused on things that would be dramatic to this age group. I really enjoyed this sweet adventure that had me wanting to try the recipes mentioned. I look forward to passing this on to my niece for her reading enjoyment. I look forward to reading and discovering more from Cori Cooper in the future.
shellyk51's review
5.0
Cat Anderson, an unlikely 14 year old, has the adventure of a lifetime on the day before school starts. Having grown up with a mom who doesn't cook, she tries a new homemade good and meets a new boy. This story will take on a funny tale through the adventures of family drama, teen angst, and delicious recipes. Cat, Robyn and their friends may have you rolling in the aisles as you read this funny tale. It makes you think back to your junior high days of cafeteria lunches and changing classes. It was nice to see the multicultural feel to it and I look forward to trying the recipes.
roxsannel's review
5.0
It is the last day of summer vacation and Cat Anderson is determined to enjoy every minute, she wakes up early and plans out her day in her head, go to the pool, use hair lightener, sunbathe, try a new snack, meet cute boys and swap phone numbers as well as the other things a fourteen year old girl can want. She creeps out of bed to the living room to get her phone from the living room to text her best friend and see if she is up and ready for the day yet, she is super excited and cannot wait any longer to ask her parents if she can go to the pool, the only snag in her plan. She goes to wake her parents up; and ask to go to the pool and she is not above begging this time, she really really wants to go, she eventually convinces them to do it, but with some conditions attached, to which she agrees and flies out of the room to get ready and throw some frozen waffles into the toaster and cover them in butter and syrup, but her mum is in the kitchen and just staring at the fridge, which is not normal, especially when she says she wants to bake something, Cat’s mum never bakes!
After she has eaten her waffles and her cousin Robyn has arrived in a burst of smiles and sunshine and announces that he mum has been baking all morning and that she has asked Robyn and cat to deliver them to the neighbours later on, all this talk of baking is making Cat’s mum on edge again, so she decides that this would be a good time for them to leave and head to the pool, but Robyn isn’t going to let it go and demands that they find out, as she is trying to figure it out, she remembers that it is more than strange that Cat’s mum is thinking about baking when she never even cooks anything, she only just manages to use her microwave and order takeout, but Cat is having none of it and eventually manages to change the subject to boys and distracts her.
When the girls get to the pool and realise that it is empty, they begin to regret their decision to go as early as possible, but they pick their spots and decide to do a bit of a sunbathing while they wait for their friends, this is after they have a race to the diving board, which Robyn wins as usual and to get down, Robyn dives and Cat cannonballs. When Cat surfaces, she is shocked to see that someone has arrived, Liam, they have a laugh and a joke about Cat’s dive, that is until she sees a gorgeous boy beside Robyn and she becomes speechless at the sight of him. Eventually she manages to get her words out to talk to him and finds out that if she doesn’t look at his eyes, she can actually talk to him, but that is easier said than done when all she wants to do is look at him. When Robyn and Liam go to get snacks, she is left with Tobey and continues their conversation, but agrees to go with him to join them shortly after, however, what Liam is eating puts her off food for a while, so she goes to top up her tan.
When Cat is woken up, she is embarrassed to know that she fell asleep, never mind that it was for a couple of hours, so after confirming that nobody had seen her snore or drool, agrees to go and join in the pool games with their friends for the next couple of hours. After she gets out, she sees someone eating a pretzel and sudden;y cannot get the idea out of her head that she has to try one of those bagels and after Tobey finds out where they are from, they go to get one from a newly opened bakery down the road from the pool, it is the most delicious thing she has ever eaten and unbeknownst to Cat, this pretzel is about to change her life.
When Cat gets home, she realises that the tv dinner she is eating is not appetising in the slightest and that she cannot eat it, so she asks to go to Robin's house and the same thing happens the next morning at breakfast, her mum is also acting really strangely still. When she gets to school, she goes to her last class of the day and finds that there is no class, she goes to see the guidance counsellor and find out what happened, but has to wait until the next day to change it, her only choice now is to go to Culinary class, this is where things start to get strange.
Why has everything been turned upside down by that pretzel and why did what happened at school actually happen and what is going on with her mum? Cat has no idea what she has gotten herself into and what the consequences of this will be, but is it all tru, or is it all bake believe, the only way to figure out what happens is to read on and discover the secrets at the same time as Cat, with a few enticing recipes thrown in for good measure on the way.
After she has eaten her waffles and her cousin Robyn has arrived in a burst of smiles and sunshine and announces that he mum has been baking all morning and that she has asked Robyn and cat to deliver them to the neighbours later on, all this talk of baking is making Cat’s mum on edge again, so she decides that this would be a good time for them to leave and head to the pool, but Robyn isn’t going to let it go and demands that they find out, as she is trying to figure it out, she remembers that it is more than strange that Cat’s mum is thinking about baking when she never even cooks anything, she only just manages to use her microwave and order takeout, but Cat is having none of it and eventually manages to change the subject to boys and distracts her.
When the girls get to the pool and realise that it is empty, they begin to regret their decision to go as early as possible, but they pick their spots and decide to do a bit of a sunbathing while they wait for their friends, this is after they have a race to the diving board, which Robyn wins as usual and to get down, Robyn dives and Cat cannonballs. When Cat surfaces, she is shocked to see that someone has arrived, Liam, they have a laugh and a joke about Cat’s dive, that is until she sees a gorgeous boy beside Robyn and she becomes speechless at the sight of him. Eventually she manages to get her words out to talk to him and finds out that if she doesn’t look at his eyes, she can actually talk to him, but that is easier said than done when all she wants to do is look at him. When Robyn and Liam go to get snacks, she is left with Tobey and continues their conversation, but agrees to go with him to join them shortly after, however, what Liam is eating puts her off food for a while, so she goes to top up her tan.
When Cat is woken up, she is embarrassed to know that she fell asleep, never mind that it was for a couple of hours, so after confirming that nobody had seen her snore or drool, agrees to go and join in the pool games with their friends for the next couple of hours. After she gets out, she sees someone eating a pretzel and sudden;y cannot get the idea out of her head that she has to try one of those bagels and after Tobey finds out where they are from, they go to get one from a newly opened bakery down the road from the pool, it is the most delicious thing she has ever eaten and unbeknownst to Cat, this pretzel is about to change her life.
When Cat gets home, she realises that the tv dinner she is eating is not appetising in the slightest and that she cannot eat it, so she asks to go to Robin's house and the same thing happens the next morning at breakfast, her mum is also acting really strangely still. When she gets to school, she goes to her last class of the day and finds that there is no class, she goes to see the guidance counsellor and find out what happened, but has to wait until the next day to change it, her only choice now is to go to Culinary class, this is where things start to get strange.
Why has everything been turned upside down by that pretzel and why did what happened at school actually happen and what is going on with her mum? Cat has no idea what she has gotten herself into and what the consequences of this will be, but is it all tru, or is it all bake believe, the only way to figure out what happens is to read on and discover the secrets at the same time as Cat, with a few enticing recipes thrown in for good measure on the way.