When Katie's best friend, Callie, dumps her for the cool kids on the first day of middle school, she manages to make some new friends-and some tasty cupcakes-in this graphic-novel adaptation of the first book in the Cupcake Diaries series.Hurt and confused, Katie gets on the bus and fortunately meets Mia, a friendly new student from Manhattan. Middle school only gets worse when Katie gets lost, is late for class, can't open her locker, and is excluded from Callie's lunch table, the self-proclaimed "Popular Girls Club." Katie ends up having lunch with Mia; Alexis, a girl who helped her earlier; and Emma, Alexis' friend. The four become fast friends, bonding over the cupcakes Katie and her mom bake. Realizing that delicious cupcakes make people happy and bring them together, Katie and her new friends start a cupcake club, hoping to contribute to a school fundraiser. Together the girls experience the ups and downs of starting middle school and changing friendships in this simple yet fun tale. Sweet illustrations, depicting large-eyed cartoon characters, convey relatable tween emotions and thoughts. Katie, Alexis, Emma, and Callie are light-skinned, while Mia has tan skin and is cued as Latinx; their teachers and classmates are diverse.A delightful story of friendship and starting middle school. (Graphic novel. 8-12)

SIMON, Coco . Mia in the Mix . Bk. 2. Nov. 2022. ISBN 9781665914161 ; ISBN 9781665914154 . ea vol: illus. by Glass House Graphics. 160p. (Cupcake Diaries: The Graphic Novel). S. &; S. / Simon Spotlight . Tr $20.99. pap. $11.99. Gr 3 Up —As Katie begins middle school, she is faced with some unexpected major changes. Her best friend, Callie, is suddenly her former best friend, having just joined a group called the Popular Girls Club. Katie soon forms a new group of friends, who decide to call themselves the Cupcake Club, since they all enjoy sharing cupcakes at lunch. A major focus of this series are the dynamics among the Cupcake Club girls—Katie, Mia, Emma, and Alexis—but since different volumes are narrated by different girls, readers also see into other aspects of their lives. In these first two volumes, readers explore Katie's relationships with her mother and Callie as well as Mia's struggle to fit in at her new school and her schedule conflicts as she splits her time between her divorced parents. The series builds empathy as it follows the highs and lows of new and old friendships. As each character goes through friendship drama that plays tug-of-war with her loyalties, readers will become invested in wanting each girl to find the balance she needs. This new graphic novel series is a smooth adaptation from the original series of novels. The artwork is bright and colorful, capturing the energy and emotion of the story. VERDICT These new books will be welcomed by fans of the original "Cupcake Club" series as well as by any tweens looking for sweet, but realistic, stories about kids trying to form lasting friendships.—Andrea Lipinski