LIghts, Camera, Cook is a great book. It is like watching a cooking show but you are reading it. THe central theme is that everybody is a winner even if yuo dont win because you tried your best. That is the central idea of this book.

My son loves watching kid cooking shows with me, but apparently he doesn’t really like reading about kid cooking shows with me. He lost interest in this book very quickly. I thought it was such a fun idea and I like this author, so I thought I would finish it on my own. But then I lost interest in it too. While this was a great concept for a book, I think the trouble was in how it was executed. It was very slow moving and we never really get to know the characters. It kind of made me feel like I...

The new Next Best Junior Chef is a contest judged by three renowned chef's. The competition allows one junior chef the chance to win a food truck and the opportunity to film in Italy.Each contestant, two boys and two girls are each around 9-11 years old and their histories influenced by their family and holiday's inspire a wide range of dishes from around the world alike in our real cooking TV shows.They are all excited as they get their own work station and personalized apron, the chance to win...

Get Ready, Set, and BAAKKKKEE!Welcome to the Next Best Junior Chef, a book I was really looking forward to and a book that certainly delivered. It was almost a 5+ star, but due to a few little things 5 stars is all I can give at the moment (which is still awesome). I just love shows like the one written in this book. I have seen quite a few and they are always so much fun. Though the one in this book was slightly different. Not only was this one taking place over a week, but it also yielded fiel...

It turns out that a lot of my kids are into cooking shows and really liked reading the first two books in this trilogy. Now that the last book is out, I decided it was time to read them myself after hearing what my kids said and then getting hooked on watching Master Chef Junior last spring when I was so sick. Watching that, I couldn't help but wonder how were those kids so good at cooking, creating, and competing on TV (something I can't even do in my own kitchen). Well, some of those secrets a...

I've just recently become (obsessed with? addicted to?) tickled by The Great British Bakeoff. This book reads just like one of the shows (and I'm inferring, like any of the baking shows). Even the solo on-camera snippets are there with character sketch and speech bubble. I love how much these kids know about food, flavors and cooking. Harper does a good job making each a distinct character and building in good drama and tension.I'm hooked! Can't wait to read the next one!

This book was cute. I think it handled the format of a cooking competition television show well. It definitely skews younger than a lot of junior fiction. It lacked development and length and complexity. I think it will fill a need for a certain group of readers though. It would be great for reluctant readers or kids who are branching out from late readers or early chapter books. It was enjoyable for me to read, but I don't think that I will read the rest of the series. I'd rather watch an episo...

Oliver, Caroline, Tate and Rae are the child contestants on Next Best Junior Chef, a hot new reality show featuring kids who can really cook. These kids have sophisticated, refined taste buds and have palates most parents only dream that their children might possess. Under the guidance of Chef Nancy, these children compete in mini-challenges, lessons, and finally an elimination challenge, sending one of the children home at the end of book #1. What kind of obstacles, internal and external, will

This is a dream come true for food-loving young chefs! The competition is fierce, and the descriptions of food made my mouth water! I really think all of the marks were hit showing skills a contestant would need to succeed in a cooking show, and the little interviews were a fun way to break up the text and hear multiple perspectives. The cooking tips and info in the back of the book were super awesome, too.The only thing I was missing was some depth of character. Otherwise, it’s a winner!

Midway through this I decided to go ahead and buy it for my 10yo nephew who is into cooking. A very quick read.

I enjoyed this book a lot, mostly because it read just like an episode of Master Chef Junior. I think anyone who enjoys cooking competition shows would enjoy this book.I guess my biggest complaint is that it didn't have a strong plot. The book is based heavily around the competition (duh), but it didn't quite feel like enough to keep me satisfied. There was minor drama between characters, but overall I felt like it wasn't enough. I wish we got a peek inside the kids' lives a little more. I think...

Cross posted from the reviewer's personal Goodreads account:Harper, Charise Mericle Next Best Junior Chef : Lights Camera Cook, 185 pgs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, $12.99. Language: G (0 swears, 0”f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G. 4 young contestants, Tate (9) Caroline (11) Oliver (12) and Rae (11) are vying to be the “Next Best Junior Chef”. Reading like a reality show, the contestants are taken through a series of instructions and challenges to see who has the most skill. Caroline co...

There are so many things to love about this book. When you read it you get a backstage view of a kid's cooking show with production information, personality conflicts and bloopers. Kids who love cooking will get some tips on new things to try and be motivated to get in the kitchen. It was brilliant to make each week in the competition a book. You walk through the week with the contestants all the way through the elimination round. This is why I love to read Charise Mericle Harper's books and rec...

Perfect for kids who love to spend time in the kitchen, either cooking or eating. Lots of great behind-the-scenes info about reality cooking shows, too. Looking forward to the second title!

Loved the concept but was a bit bored with the book

I love watching Food Network, so when I read the blurb for this book I knew I had to read it. This book was entertaining from the start. I was caught up in the nervousness and excitement of Rae, Caroline, Tate and Oliver as they learned how the show Next Best Junior Chef would work.I learned a few cooking skills for myself. Anytime you can learn while reading is wonderful but it is even better when you learn while reading for entertainment. This book will definitely make it on the list for recom...

I was given this e-book free of charge by NetGalley. Thank you!This was such a fun book! The four junior chefs are all intriguing, but my favourite was by far Tate. He was just so adorable! One thing that momentarily confused me is that there is no established main character. We get glimpses of inner thoughts from all 4 contestants, which makes it harder to truly connect to, or root for, any of them. But if you really think about it, it makes perfect sense - this novel is, after all, based on co...

E ARC from Edelweiss Above the TreelineCaroline, Rae, Oliver and Tate are contestants on the high stakes Next Best Junior Chef television program. They are competing on a television show judeged by world class chefs, so they are all very nervous. Tate is only nine, so he has a lot of energy and sometimes less than ideal behavior, Oliver is the self-proclaimed "King of Calm", and Caroline and Rae are both rather nervous. All of the children work together on the various challenges and are good spo...

Harper does a great job turning the wildly popular cooking shows into an excellent book for kids grades 3-7 who love them. Rae, Caroline, Tate and Oliver all earned the right to compete for the title of "Next Best Junior Chef" and all four take the competition seriously. All four characters have very different personalities and strengths in the kitchen and must figure out ways to impress judges with their cooking skills AND perform well on and off camera. Rae and Caroline become best friends, Ta...

I agree with Megan's review, this book felt scant on plot. I also didn't like that this was told from omniscient POV, we never really were allowed to get close to any single character. I prefer stories told in close personal third myself, so I can FEEL something. Not bad, it read a lot like the British Bake-off shows that are popular with my teenage daughter, but I find it hard to believe 9-12 year old kids could ever pull off the kinds of think-fast, spur-of-the-moment recipes featured in this