Purple and orange cupcakes matching the Cupcake Boy Cover

The Cupcake Boy

A story about learning to live a life of passion

The Cupcake Boy. A story about learning to live a life of passion. By Scott Stoll.

The Cupcake Boy

By Scott Stoll
Illustrated by Amy Belle Elementary School
Children’s chapter book
Ages 5-12+

Synopsis: This is a story about a boy who makes the most beautiful and tasty cupcakes in the world; however, the villagers take the boy for granted. So disheartened, he leaves his home, wondering: “Why should I bake cupcakes for a world that doesn’t love me?”

Discover the passion of life.

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Part of the Make-A-Book Project

These books are part of the Make-A-Book Project, an author-in-residence program with author Scott Stoll. The books are entertaining, inspirational and educational. The stories are written by Scott and illustrated by elementary students and are jam-packed with fun surprises and related activities. The black and white pages leave plenty of room so children can add their own drawings and colors. You will be surprised how much children love to see other children’s drawings. 

The Cupcake Boy school photo. Children standing in the shape of a cupcake.
The Cupcake Boy school photo. This is a green cupcake with a red cherry on top. There weren’t enough blue shirts for the frosting.

Read more about how this photograph was made.

Cupcake Boy back cover with school photo of students standing in the shape of a cupcake with a cherry on top.
The back cover of the book features the school photo.

More about this book: This children’s chapter book is full of rich, conceptual drawings that complement the story. The young students keep adding new levels of fun and inspiration to what I imagine possible. And this time, we got hundreds of drawings of cupcakes from tiger flavor to worm flavor. This was a very challenging book for me to write in a kid-friendly manner. In many ways, it is a sequel to “Falling Uphill: The Secret of Life” because it is a coming-of-age story about returning home, where the Cupcake Boy learns to see the joy of his labors and learns how to use his passion and the lessons of his “mistakes” to create the life of his dreams, which not only includes cupcakes but a community for those he loves. The book also includes a page of challenges to help kids find hidden surprises in the story.

A page from the book colored by kids.
One mother was kind enough to send me this photo: “My kids thought your book needed a little color.” I love the different ways kids interact with the story.
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Inspirational, Educational and Entertaining

Every book in the Make-A-Book project has three main themes. First, they are meant to inspire students. Second, they educate students, so students can put their inspiration into action. And third, they are entertaining, which serves as a hook to get the students involved. You can see these themes in the pages below.

A boy licking a cupcake. His head is simply drawn, a circle with a half moon mouth.
Sometimes students get stuck, but with a little encouragement, this picture turned out great. I love the simplicity of the illustrations. They convey so much beauty and meaning with so few lines.
A delicately drawn cupcake with little flying cupcakes in the sky.
We had several naming contests. They got to choose the names of the characters and create new flavors for cupcakes. I then assigned the flavors to the class to illustrate.
A boy symbolized by a pig-shaped cupcake stands alone on the mountain top.
The greedy Cupcake Boy drawn as a pig-shaped cupcake. In this scene, the boy is looking down on his village, realizing how small it is, yet how big his impact had been.
A city full of skyscrapers made of cupcakes
A picture that shows the legacy of passionate work.
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Project Updates

Family celebrating getting illustration in the book
This family celebrates getting an illustration in the book. I loved this picture so much that it inspired a new page in the book. (Photo with courtesy and permission from the family.)

View all the project updates.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the 412 students and their parents, teachers and the staff of Amy Belle Elementary School for making this book possible. Special thanks to Arma Ezekiel Purdy for her passion and vision to see this project as an opportunity to foster community by seeding new ideas and empowering children with a real-life project. Without Arma, this book would never have gone beyond a good idea. Thanks to Principal Maria Kucharski for seeing this as an opportunity to inspire students to live the life of their dreams. And thanks to Laurette Alburg and the rest of the PTA for harnessing the passion of everyone involved and turning it into the nuts and bolts to make it happen.

The Cupcake Boy. A story about learning to live a life of passion. By Scott Stoll.

Discover the passion of life. Order now!

Buy signed book

Signed books are fulfilled on our author Scott’s website.  

More ways to order

  1. Order at your favorite local bookstore. I recommend Bookshop.org. They donate 100% of the profits back to your favorite local bookstore.
  2. Order from your local library. Try Hoopla to get the e-book from your library. It’s free.
  3. Order on Amazon. This is a great option if you would like to leave a review and help the book find an audience.
  4. More e-book options.
  5. Special Orders: Bulk, events, international, etc.

Author: Scott Stoll
Publisher: Argonauts Press
Format: Paperback and e-book. 108 Pages.
Age group: 5–12+
Publication: Anniversary edition © 04-11-2012
ISBN: 978-0-9827842-4-2 paperback
ISBN: 978-1-3863118-4-3 ebook
Language: English