Nixie Ness: Cooking Star is book one of the After-School Superstars series by Claudia Mills and after reading this one you will likely want to continue with the next book (when available). This is such a cute story with a fun and unique theme of children learning to bake in an after-school program. In addition to being entertaining, we get to read about other experiences that children will relate to such as home life changes and difficulties with friendships. Those who love baking/cooking will especially enjoy this story because they’ll probably learn some tips and tricks along the way and it may even spark an interest in those who haven’t tried baking before. Mills managed to write a story that is both simple enough for a younger audience but she also slips in language to build vocabulary in an enjoyable way. Even though the main characters are girls, there are plenty of secondary boy characters so both male and female elementary age children will like this book. This would be an excellent pick for a young family to read aloud as well and I look forward to doing that with my children.
Review of an Advance Reading Copy
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Margaret Ferguson Books
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: None
Violence/Gore: 1 brief incident of character joking about maybe accidentally poisoning another.
Sex/Nudity: None
Mature Subject Matter:
None
Alcohol / Drug Use:
None
