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Mia in the Mix (Cupcake Diaries: The Graphic Novel 2)

Mia in the Mix (Cupcake Diaries: The Graphic Novel 2)

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Mia in the Mix (Cupcake Diaries: The Graphic Novel 2)

Author(s)

Coco Simon

Co-Authors / Illustrators

Glass House Graphics

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

November 15, 2022

ISBN

978-1665914154

Buy This Book

The bestselling Cupcake Diaries series is now available in graphic novel format! In this adaptation of the second book, new girl Mia tries to find her place at the Cupcake Club’s school.

When Mia arrives at her new school, her goal is to be open to and friendly with everyone, but everyone at Park Street School fits into a clique. When the Popular Girls Club takes an interest in Mia’s awesome fashion style and wants to recruit her, Mia must decide between them and her great new Cupcake Club friends. It’s like choosing between her divorced mom and dad and her old house and new house. Is it always going to be Mia in the middle, or can she mix it up?

Fun, bright, full-color graphic panels tell the story with the same humor and heart as the original novel.

Editor review

1 review

Cupcakes and Friend Drama

December 04, 2022

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Mia has moved out from Manhattan with her divorced mother and has to deal with a new school as well as a new almost step-father and brother. Mia's mother worked for Flair fashion magazine and is now a consultant, so unlike some other members of the Cupcake Club, Mia cares what she wears. This makes is easy for her to talk to the Popular Girls Club members, but she feels very akward eating lunch with them when she knows how Katie feels about one PGC member, Callie. The girls get several cupcake baking jobs (one for a teacher and one for Mia's mother's fashion show) and have to learn how to budget, especially when they have some spectacular baking disasters (how much lemon juice SHOULD go into a cupcake?) that eat into their profits. Will Mia be able to remain friends with the PGC members and still work with Katie making cupcakes?

Good Points

I'm a big fan of books with Kids Doing Things, and I love that there is a balance between the fun of making cupcakes and the serious matter of doing this as a business. Even though I read the regular novel of this over a decade ago, I still remember the plot point about the sugar flowers-- at 75 cents each, they really cut into the profit when the girls were only charging their teacher $1 per cupcake! Tweens often come up with good ideas that require a lot more thought before they are implemented, so it's good to see Mia and her friends run into small troubles that make them think more concretely about how their business should be run.

This series of books has been out for over ten years and has 34 books altogther, so I wasn't too surprised to see a graphic novel adaptation of some of the books in the series. Since Mia, Katie, Alexis and Emma are a bit hard for me to keep apart, the graphic format was actually a big help! It's fun to see Mia's fashions , and the bright colors and attractive illustrations will make this immediately popular with readers who want fun stories with lots of friend drama! Hand this to readers who have been enjoying the graphic novel reboots of popular older series like Martin's The Baby-sitter's Club or Pascal's Sweet Valley Twins, as well as those who enjoy the original graphic novels of Telgemeier, Jamieson, or Knisley.