Cupcake: A Journey to Special

Title: Cupcake    
Author: Charise Mericle Harper   
Illustrator: Charise Mericle Harper   
Publisher: 2010
Publication Date: Disney Hyperion Books   
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book   
Summary: A plain, vanilla cupcake ends up on the cake platter alone after all his brothers and sisters, who are fancy and decorated, are eaten up.  A candle overhears him crying and can relate because he’s ordinary compared to all of his brothers and sisters.  Together, they begin their journey toward special!
What I Think: I seem to be running into a theme in the picture books I’ve been reading lately!  I grabbed this book because of the sparkly, glittery cover.  I have a thing for glitter…but the colors and illustrations are sweet, too.  I love that there is a recipe in the back of the book for cupcakes and frosting! Kids could read the book, read the recipe and make the cupcakes, or read the recipe, eat cupcakes and the recipe could go home to be made at home.  Kids could decorate their own cupcake and then take a picture and create a name for their cupcake.  You can talk about symbolism, then they can create a cupcake to represent themselves and ask the students to write an explanation of how they decorated their cupcakes.  Yum!  I’m ready to make cupcakes now!  
Read Together: Pre-K - 12   
Read Alone: 1 - 5  
Read With: One by Kathryn Otoshi, Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett, The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss   
Snatch of Text:

“One day, in a big bowl, flour, sugar, eggs, milk,

and baking powder were all mixed together.

And then, with just the right amount of

baking in a toasty hot oven…

…Cupcake was born.”

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions   
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Expository
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you helped someone feel special.  Describe what makes you unique.  Decorate a cupcake to represent you and then explain what qualities the cupcake represents that make you special.   
Topics Covered: Diversity, Fitting In, Being Different, Integration - Cooking/Foods, Adjectives
Translated to Spanish: No