A bittersweet story about learning to take life as it comes.
Plot
Fourteen-year-old Penny’s parents are “separating.” She doesn’t know how long it will last. In the mean time, she and her mother move away from her father in New York to live in Hog’s Hollow. This small coastal town is where Penny’s mom opens her bakery, The Cupcake Queen. But when Penny and her mom are catering at a girl named Charity’s birthday party, it goes horribly wrong and Charity gets mad at Penny for it. However, Penny soon meets Tally, a funky, spirited girl who helps her face Charity. She also runs into Marcus, the cute, mysterious boy who is always running on the beach, and also helps her to realize that life isn’t perfect, but you do with it what you can.
Morality
Some of the girls at school are really mean to Penny. Tally calls some feminist groups to protest a beauty pageant and says that they are “subjugating our young girls to a male-dominated paradigm.”
Spiritual Content
Penny says that when she thinks of her soul, she pictures “a blobby floating thing that changes color depending on [her] mood.” A character makes decorative glass balls, which she calls witch balls. Penny says her art class in New York was focused on “finding your inner muse.”
Violence
None.
Drug and Alcohol Content
None.
Sexual Content
None.
Crude or Profane Language or Content
The profanities crap, suck, freaking, dumb, stupid, screwup, kook, moron, ho, and loser are each referenced once or twice.
Conclusion
Although it is sad in parts, The Cupcake Queen is a sweet story about a young girl who decides not to worry about how life should be, but to take it as it is. However, beware of a few mild swear words and mentions of odd spiritual views.
