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Jeremy Bender Vs. The Cupcake Cadets (2011)

by Eric Luper(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0062015125 (ISBN13: 9780062015129)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Balzer + Bray

review 1: Jeremy and his friend Slater are typical 6th graders. They have their likes (working with Jeremy's dad's vintage boat) and their dislikes (Paul, the school bully), and are trying to survive the best they can. When they accidentally damage the boat, they try to find a way to come up with the money for repairs. Happening upon a sign for a model boat race, they figure that they are sure to win the $500, but there is one catch-- they have to become Cupcake Cadets in order to do it. They come up with credible disguises as girls (something which would not be too hard for a 6th grade boy to do; all it took for my son to be mistaken for a girl was long hair!) and find that being a cadet is a LOT harder than they thought. In order to even enter the boat competition, they have to ea... morern three merit badges, sell a certain amount of cupcakes, and get along with the other cadets... none of which are as easy as they anticipate. They make an arch enemy whom they have to convince not to out them, and gain a new appreciation for girls, in more ways than one!Strengths: In addition to being highly amusing (in the way that Project Sweet Life was), this was actually a very good book for both girls and boys about the different strengths and weaknesses of each sex. The incidental characters, such as the children's librarian and the scout leader (who is specifically described as keeping her maiden name! Whoo!) are engaging, and the incidents all fall within the realm of believability. Since personal identity is such a big concern for students this age, these gender "benders" will appeal to many students. Weaknesses: Character development is there but could have been a bit stronger, and the ending is a little too easy. Also felt sorry for the villianized reference librarians and did not believe that the soccer coach would turn a blind eye to bullying.
review 2: My favorite sister-in-law just sent me a joke today about a guy needing a brain transplant. The doctors want $2000 for a man's brain and $200 for a woman's. Why? Because you pay more for something that hasn't been used :DI bring this up because Jeremy Bender and his pal Slater think it will be a cinch to dress up in drag and join the "Cupcake Cadets". They need the $500 prize money from a Cadet contest to pay for damage they've done to Jeremy's dad's prized boat. Fool the girls? Beat them at their own games? Easy, they think. But neither posing as girls nor invading the Cadets world is as easy as it seems.There are wedgie jokes and the like here for boys, but I suspect that girls will like this as much or even more than the boys, because there are a pack of smart,resourceful girls here, from their sister Ruthie to Cadet Margaret Parsley to the electric blue haired children's librarian battling the mean old reference librarians--both stereotypes by the way, but at least there's no mean old children's librarian....... less

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