Book Review – Angel Cake by Cathy Cassidy
Fun and Encouraging Novel for Pre-Teen Girls by UK Author
Jun 14, 2009
Angel Cake (Penguin, 2009) is the latest novel by popular UK tween author Cathy Cassidy. Focusing on friendships and belonging, this novel continues Cassidy’s trend of offering enjoyable and uplifting novels for girls aged 9 – 13.
Angel Cake
Anya and her family move to England from Poland hoping for a better life, but Anya isn’t sure that her life back in Krakow was that bad. Homesick and missing her friends, Anya is disappointed with their rundown apartment and depressed that she cannot communicate easily with the students at her new school.
Anya eventually makes friends with some other students in her year eight grade, but manages to also attract the negative attention of one of the popular girls. Living on the fringe of school life, Anya struggles to find anything positive about her new home until she gets to know Dan, another student.
Anya and her friends Frankie and Kurt discover Dan advertising his mother’s new cafe, Heaven. This cafe attracts the friends and others, offering a haven from the worries of everyday life.
As she finally starts to fit in and build on her friendship with Dan, Anya is faced with the possibility of having to return to Poland. Once again, she must face the thought of losing friends and leaving her dreams behind.
Angel Cake offers reader whimsical humour and fun with an encouraging message in a story that features characters and situations that readers will readily relate to.
Importance of Building Strong Friendships
Angel Cake is an enjoyable and well-constructed story offering young girls not only entertainment but also some very strong messages about the importance of good friendships, family and holding on to your dreams.
Author Cathy Cassidy believes that healthy friendships and good self-esteem go hand in hand. “You can’t build strong lasting friendships if you are pretending to be something else. ... So, for kids to kind of have that basic self-confidence that comes from accepting themselves as they are, that is something that I would love readers to absorb from the stories.”
She actively encourages readers to invest time and energy into their friendships in both her books and through her website. At the conclusion of Angel Cake, Cassidy includes a recipe for heavenly angel cakes, encourages readers to practice random acts of kindness, provides instructions for making a dream flag and offers a 6 step Friendship Charter to help build stronger friendships.
Discussing Issues Relevant to Pre-Teens
Through both her novels and website, Cassidy focuses on issues that are relevant to her pre-teen audience. “I think young people now are growing up in a very different society to the one that I grew up in and things are a lot tougher for them. I think that it is quite important to look at some of those difficult things in the context of a story where it is safe and where you can explore it with hope and show that there can be happy outcomes.”
“I think that it is better to do that than to pretend that certain things don’t exist. Maybe you can look at things like bullying, for example, or a family split and show that it might not be the end of the world or in the instance of bullying that there are ways of getting around it and ways of dealing with it and ways of getting over the impact that it will have on their lives. I think those things need to be explored.”
In late 2009 Cassidy will be releasing Letters to Cathy, a compilation of tips and advice inspired by the many letters she has received from readers.
Entertaining and Encouraging Novels for Pre-Teen Girls
Cathy Cassidy’s passion for encouraging and bringing a positive message to young girls comes through strongly in her novels and website. Online she offers readers an opportunity to interact with her and ask questions and provides numerous tips on building great friendships as well as offering advice to budding writers and running a perpetual writing competition.
Angel Cake was released in Australia in May 2009 to coincide with Cassidy’s book tour. It will be released in the UK in early July 2009. She has also recently released Shine On Daizy Star (Puffin, 2009), a fun novel aimed at slightly younger readers.
Angel Cake (ISBN: 978-0-14-132517-0, 208 pages)
 |
