Everyone Loves Cupcake by Kelly Dipucchio (review)

Cupcake loves—no, needs—to be liked. By everyone. With her sparkly tiara, beauty queen wave, and thousand-watt smile, she’s very popular among her fellow bakery inhabitants: Brownie is nuts about her, and Coffee loves her “a latte.” Of course, you can’t please everyone, and the tarts and their petty comments send her into a tailspin that makes her draining company. Suddenly everyone has an excuse for not spending time with her, from Baguette begging off due to being an early riser to Tea Bag needing to take a bath, and only sage advice from Cookie rescues her from despair and gives her the courage to be herself. Undeniably, unabashedly charming in its whimsy and wordplay, this fluffy-and-delicious-as-buttercream story delivers laughs by the bakers dozen. Wight’s detailed but utterly straightforward digital illustrations are the real source of giggles, using expressive anthropomorphized baked goods to enchanting effect. Saturated pinks and blues grounded by the browns of breads across full-page spreads make for frothy visual fun, and the supplemental details, including sly nods to the book’s companion piece, Everyone Loves Bacon, guarantee laughs across age groups. While some viewers may not yet appreciate Donut’s confession that he sometimes feels empty inside, they’ll still find a toothsome and relatable narrative about the perils of needing to be liked. It’s a tasty confection of a story, sweet, silly, and indulgent—and worth every bite.