Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Secret Ingredient by Laura Schaefer

Annie from The Teashop Girls is back and this time she's in a baking contest!

Ms. Schaefer sent me a copy of her book for review (thank you).  Simon & Schuster Books for Young Reader's has published this book and you can snag a copy now.

I enjoyed "The Teashop Girls" so I was looking forward to seeing what the three young teens were up to now.  They are having growing pains from puberty and their friendships are altering as they mature.  Annie is still jumping to conclusions.
Genna has gone away to school and is coming back for a visit.  Zoe is now going "green" and raising organic crops and trying to get schools to serve healthier foods to children.  Annie is working in the tea shop with her Grandmother and experimenting with cooking.

When Annie finds out that she can win a trip to London by winning the bake-off, she's in.  And she expects her friends to help.  She's working on scones and there are recipes in the book to help you practice on them, too.

Zach is my favorite character.  He teases Annie, gets in the way, and even steals a kiss from her which confuses her greatly.  She doesn't like him so how could his kiss make her feel like this, kind of warm and fuzzy?

Nothing works out quite as smoothly as Annie had planned (that's the way life is), someone is cheating, and will Annie win?  Get yourself a copy of this book and see for yourself.

This is a good read for young teens.  It's a simple story with good recipes and good lessons about life.  What's not to like?

Happy reading.

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