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Cupcake Day!

by Katharine Holabird (text) & illus. by Helen Craig with Mike Deas
S. & S./Simon Spotlight. (Angelina Ballerina). Dec. 2020. 32p. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781534480629; pap. $4.99. ISBN 9781534480612.
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PreS-Gr 1–Put Angelina Ballerina in an apron, cute as a button, and then set her down with a blue bowl and a wooden spoon. In this Ready-to-Read, Holabird’s popular twinkle toes wants to bake cupcakes to enter in the Chipping Cheddar Baking Contest, but her pastries cannot stand up to Miss Quaver’s famous piano chocolate pie, which takes the prize. But she has had fun in the attempt, and that’s what counts. A bright cadence to the language, with repetitive words and the plotting, like the last-minute save from a friend when Angelina forgets the icing, is all emerging readers need to cover this short, sweet tale.
VERDICT No surprises, but a sturdy formula, and one that will invite new or struggling readers into an entire universe of dancing, swirling, and kindness. Recommended wherever the series is popular.
Reviewed by Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal , Mar 01, 2021

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