Cupcake Club Authors Write New Fashion Academy Book
Hamptonites and Cupcake Club authors Sheryl Berk and 12-year-old daughter Carrie Berk have moved from the bakery and into to design school with their latest tween novel Fashion Academy.
The book, due for release on July 7, tells the story of a fashion-forward but quirky MacKenzie Williams, a new student at FAB Middle School (Fashion Academy of Brooklyn), “a training ground for the fashion designers of tomorrow.” Unfortunately, MacKenzie’s multicolored hair, mismatched socks and other unique looks don’t help her win a lot of friends—it doesn’t help that she’s a star pupil—so she gets a me-too makeover and ditches her personal style for good. The newly blond “Kenzie Wills” fits in perfectly with everyone else, but is that a good thing? Since “be yourself” is a better moral than “be like everybody else,” it’s a safe bet MacKenzie will find her way back, pink hair and all.
It’s also a safe bet Fashion Academy will earn thousands of fans and end up as the first in a series following MacKenzie and her exploits at FAB. The Berks have already proven they’ve got the stuff for success with their Cupcake Club series, which includes seven books that have sold more than 300,000 copies. The series was also recently adapted into an off-Broadway musical. Carrie Berk, who loves fashion and cupcakes, dreamed up the idea behind Fashion Academy in fifth grade and, no doubt, her mother and creative collaborator helped shape her idea and get it onto the page.
Sheryl Berk has written about fashion for more than two decades as a contributor to InStyle magazine and founding editor in chief of Life & Style Weekly. She has written books with multiple celebrities and notable people, including Britney Spears, Zendaya and Bethany Hamilton, whose book with Berk, Soul Surfer, became a #1 New York Times bestseller and a hit film.
Always being one to dive head-first into her work, Carrie Berk has already attended New York Fashion Week and interviewed industry stars such as Isaac Mizrahi, Zara Terez and fashion blogger Bethany Mota, and she’s blogging about her fashion world experiences on fashionacademybook.com.
Fashion Academy is available for preorder now and will be published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky on July 7.