Cupcakes and Reading. Typical.
I chose to read the Babymouse series because I hadn’t heard of them before. The main character is, of course, a young girl named Babymouse who has a very sassy personality. The books are written and illustrated as though they were comics directed toward young girls. Throughout the book Babymouse has a conflict which she discusses with the narrator in a comedic way. I enjoy how the books are fun to read (and easy, each takes about 10 minutes) and include a lesson that young children may be struggling with. I am definitely going to recommend these to people, it is such a cute and funny series, I may even buy the rest!
In the very first book of the series, Babymouse wants to attend a slumber party at Felicia Furrypaws house because everyone who is anyone is going to be there. She goes through a series of obstacles to be invited, but none of her plans get her invited. Last minute, Felicia tells her that she forgot to complete her essay and asks Babymouse for hers, so, desperately wanting to be invited to the slumber party, Babymouse agrees which results in her getting a notice to take home for not completing the assignment but also she gets an invitation-yay! Except there’s one problem-the slumber party is the same night she told her best friend Wilson she would watch a scary movie with him and eat cupcakes. What does she do? Babymouse decides to attend the slumber party. Upon her arrival, she realizes that all the girls want to do is talk. They don’t want to play games or do anything fun, all they want to do is sit around and gossip. Felicia Furrypaws isn’t the nicest person either. She makes Babymouse feel bad for honest accidental mistakes and orders her around to make everyone popcorn- how rude. Babymouse begins to feel remorseful about choosing the slumber party over her best friend of forever. She worries he will find a different best friend and realizes life without Wilson would be awful, “it would be like a cupcake without icing. A book without an ending. A dress without a heart…” (the only dress she wears has a heart, so that bad). Feeling that way, she decides she doesn’t like these girls anyways and shows them how she feels by dumping popcorn on Felicia Furrypaws head. SWEET REVENGE! (Although I think she could have just left politely, but she got her point across) Once that deed is done, she drags all her stuff in the rain to Wilsons house and he is completely forgiving- in a way she does lie to him and just says she was running late, but it was a happy ending of giant squids and cupcakes.
Babymouse #8 Puppy Love is even better. I think it can give kids who read it a sense of responsibility. Everything about this book is funny- the artwork, the narration, and the story line- it’s great! Basically Babymouse ha a fish, then she finds out the fish died, so she asks her mom for another one and then after school they go get one. Next day, this fish is dead too (Th
at was Goldy #5 by the way). Then she goes through a hamster, a turtle, a ferret, a salamander, a hermit crab, Venus flytrap, and even sea monkeys. Loses them all. Finally, her mom says no more because they all keep escaping. Little does Babymouse know, they are all under her bed having a party. Her best friend Wilson helps her out and builds her an ant farm for free- but when she wakes up they’re all over her room. Typical. After all this, Babymouse finds a stray dog and convinces her mom to let her keep him at least until they find the owner. She trains the dog after “he” chews up all her shoes, her room, and does no-no’s (as my grandma would call it) in her room. Once he is trained and washed, she falls in love with “him”. All that and then when she takes “him” on a walk the owner shows up and takes her, Lady, (it as a girl all along, Babymouse never thought to check before naming the dog Buddy) away. Babymouse is devastated. The last page shows a row of milk cartons with the names and pictures of all her lost animals on them.
There isn’t anything I don’t enjoy about this series honestly, except that I don’t have more of them.
Also, these are pretty cheap…so I recommend grabbing a book or two. And a cupcake because, why not?
One Reply to “Cupcakes and Reading. Typical.”
This sounds like such a cute series! I hope to have it in my classroom some day. I really love books that appeal to children and also are incredibly entertaining to read, and this sounds like it fits that description exactly. The only thing I wish was different is that it would also appeal more to boys. I’m not saying that a young boy should not read this series, by all means I think boys should love pink and cute girl mice as much as the girls do! However, sadly, they usually don’t like those things as much as the girls. :( I will 1000% encourage girls AND boys to read series like this when I am a teacher.