Tag Brenda Gurr

The Fabulous Cakes of Zinnia Jakes: The Super Spy / Sky

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These are both additions to popular, established series: thanks to the publishers for sending them for review:

The Fabulous Cakes of Zinnia Jakes: The Super Spy
Brenda Gurr
New Frontier Publishing

With cooking programmes on TV as popular as ever, I’m sure there are many young aspiring Zinnia Jakes, aka Zoe who will relish this the third in the series about baking and the challenges it presents to nine-year-old Zoe, her best friend Addie, her Aunt Jam a musician, and Coco the seemingly magical cat that appears at specific times, some of which are exceedingly inconvenient.

In this story we find Zoe coping with the annoying shenanigans of the moggy especially when it invades lessons, the forthcoming school sleepover for Year 4 and the challenge of making a fabulous spy-themed Cake for the Parents’ Association party this coming weekend.

On receiving the cake request sent as usual to Zinnia Jakes, Zoe’s mind immediately goes into over-drive; but how will she manage delivering a cake in secret without revealing the identity of Zinna Jakes, especially as Aunt Jam will be otherwise engaged? Perhaps her dad might help as he’s going to be at home on the night of the sleepover, so he tells Zoe.

First though Zoe has to decide on a design for the cake and with suggestions from Jam, Addie, not to mention Coco, she finally settles on a combination of their ideas.

However, things begin to go downhill when she received news from her dad -he’s been delayed; and then she overhears one of the organiser’s mention of spy traps – supposed to be part of the fun but not of course for Zinnia. Is her identity after all, destined to be discovered?

Full of surprises, this tale of teamwork and friendship, determination and resilience will go down especially well with younger readers of chapter books; it would also make a good, short read-aloud for KS1 classes. Don’t miss the recipe for a ‘hidden secret cake’ at the end of the story.

Sky
Holly Webb, illustrated by Jo Anne Davies
Little Tiger

This is the latest in the author’s Winter Animal series that have a time slip and a creature linking the two periods.

When Lara and her parents arrive in the Scottish Highlands to spend the Christmas holidays with her grandparents, she’s surprised when Grandad tells her of a snowy owl he’s seen. Then both Lara and Grandad spot her again and despite the snow that’s fallen overnight, Lara insists on going out the next day in the hope of seeing the bird again; and see Sky as she names the white bird, she does. It leads her all the way to the Big House before disappearing but Lara notices that the Christmas tree in its window has real candles burning brightly.

The following morning, Lara is drawn back to the house and as she approaches, there at the edge of the driveway, she comes upon a sobbing girl in a long white dress lying on the snowy ground.

A girl from another era who says her name is Amelia and is surprised that Lara is dressed in, as she calls her trousers and jacket, ‘boys’ clothes’. Lara in turn is amazed at Amelia’s ‘old-fashioned, fancy clothes’ especially her underwear that she sees when Amelia takes her into her bedroom in the big house. Now Lara is convinced that, thanks to that magical owl, she’s gone back in time.

With lots of lovely black-and-white illustrations by Jo Anne Davies, this is a gorgeous wintry tale that primary readers, especially animal lovers will adore, either around Christmas, or really, at any time.

Scoop McLaren: Waves of Mystery / The Fabulous Cakes of Zinnia Jakes: The Tumbling Tortoises

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Here are two recent fiction titles from New Frontier Publishing – thanks for sending …

Scoop McLaren: Waves of Mystery
Helen Castles

Scoop McLaren, editor of her very own online newspaper Click and her best friend and roving reporter Evie return for a second mystery to solve. The newspaper has now gone national and as the story opens Scoop is playing host to young surfing ace Fletcher Stein who has set his sights on winning Higgity Harbour’s big surfing competition.

However as the semi-final approaches things start to happen that give Scoop, the book’s narrator, cause for concern: could somebody be attempting to sabotage Fletcher’s chances? Right away the two girls are on the case but their sleuthing has to be kept under the radar as Evie’s policeman dad immediately tells them to leave the detective work to the police.

It’s not long before one suspect is identified; but how many people are involved in trying to stop Fletcher even reaching the final let alone winning the whole event. And is a curse part of the problem?

However, reach the final he does but things then get even weirder as people start disappearing …

With lots of twists and turns, the fast paced plot shows how Scoop uses her instincts, intelligence and her attention to detail, to get to the bottom of things.

An enjoyable tale for older readers at the heart of which is friendship and loyalty.

Another sequel, this time for slightly younger readers is:

The Fabulous Cakes of Zinnia Jakes: The Tumbling Tortoises
Brenda Gurr

Zoe is excited to hear that with her Galapagos tortoise cupcakes idea she has won the Wildside Zoo’s competition and is now the official baker for the zoo’s endangered animals campaign.

However when she hears that her entire class has been invited to the launch event and that class captain Polly is to report on it, she realises that it’s going to be an enormous challenge to do the extra research she wants to make the most realistic-looking cakes possible and deliver them to the venue while ensuring that her identity as the popular cake creator Zinnia Jakes is kept under wraps.

Can Zoe possibly pull it off? Perhaps, with the assistance of her musical Aunty Jam and of course, best friend Addie.

Another action-packed narrative that is lots of fun and likely to tickle the taste buds of young solo readers.

The Crumbling Castle / Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape & Sage Cookson’s Snow Day

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The Crumbling Castle
Brenda Gurr
New Frontier Publishing

In these pandemic, physical distancing days lots of people have found a new delight in baking but how many would have this, or similar, said of their efforts:
‘Her cakes are out of this world! But please answer me this. Who is Zinnia Jakes?’

Daughter of globe-trotting food critic father, nine year old Zoe Jones has a special expertise inherited from famous pastry chef her mother (now dead). It’s she who uses the Zinnia Jakes alias to keep her identity hidden, for young Zoe has a real flair for cake creating, something she’d discovered when she baked her Aunt Jam a fabulous birthday cake a couple of years before the story begins. Hugely impressed, her aunt had suggested Zoe should start her own cake-making business. Only her best friend Addie is in on the secret, for orders are always delivered when nobody is watching.

Now Zoe has a new order: a medieval history professor is launching her new book at the medieval fair in two days time and wants ‘an authentic medieval castle’, a crumbling one, to display on her stall.

Zoe has just two days to create something truly impressive. Can she do it in time? Perhaps with the assistance of Coco her cat with special powers and STEM whiz, Addie. But then of course, she still has to deliver the order covertly.

This, the first book of the new The Fabulous Cakes of Zinnia Jakes series is aimed at newly-independent readers.  Mix together an action-packed narrative, lively characters and sprinkle with magic: the result? A fun offering; and the icing on the cake is that the author has allowed Zoe to share her secret recipe for medieval gingerbread with readers. It sounds yummy.

Also from New Frontier Publishing for youngsters hungry for more books with a cooking theme:

Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape
Sage Cookson’s Snow Day
Sally Murphy

Sage Cookson is the daughter of popular TV chefs, who travel all over Australia tasting new foods, acquiring new techniques and serving them up to their adoring television audience. The good thing is that the Cooksons take Sage with them. That means she misses her friend Lucy, but now her parents have given Sage a mobile of her own so she can keep in touch. She also keeps up with her education by attending local schools or having a tutor.

In the first adventure Sage accompanies her parents to Western Australia where they’re to be guest judges at a cooking contest. Before that, they’re offered a tour of a chocolate factory belonging to chocolatier Marco. The chocolate they taste is absolutely divine but intuitively Sage feels something isn’t quite right, especially when Marco talks of his cocoa plantation. In the Australian bush? Really?

Things hot up when the Cooksons find themselves in an extremely sticky situation and without a phone signal. Will they be able to judge the 10th annual Newhaven Cooking Contest after all?

With its chocolately theme this is a tasty read for young solo readers who will be delighted to discover the Cheat’s Chocolate Fondant recipe after the story.

The second book sees Sage and her family off to Snowy Village in the Australian Alps. Now Page has promised to steer clear of danger. So what will a caring young miss do when she learns that her friend Kyle has gone missing with his snowboard?

Again there’s a recipe after the story – the rather more sophisticated ‘Easy Mille-Feuliie’. This one along with other recipes and activities can be found at Sage’s own website where I also found that Snow Day is actually story number 8 in the series.