Review: The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis

The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis.

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 2013
List Price: $17.99
ISBN-13: 9780385743310

Review: If you are someone who loves books about teens going through tough times and trying to figure out who they are, then The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis is a great book that you will love.

In this book, the protagonist is Olivia, a 16-year-old girl living in Silver Lake, California with her two dads, Enrique and Bell, and her brother, Jeremy. The family restaurant, called "FOOD" is going out of business, and Olivia decides to get a job to earn money to save the restaurant. Olivia then meets a woman who gives her information for finding her birth mother. Once Olivia finds her birth mother's address and name, she searches to find her because she believes that HER MOTHER is the secret ingredient for saving the restaurant and giving her a mother she always wanted, but never had. The Secret Ingredient was a very well written book and gives very vivid details on all the events in the story. For example; "She stares at me for what seems like an hour, then finally pushes the button and goes back into stranger mode. As we wait for the maintenance guy to radio in, she barely looks at me, until the elevator finally starts to move and we reach the casting agent's floor." This is an example of Olivia explaining how the lady stared at her. Also, I do believe that this book is intended for girls more than boys because it is from the perspective of a girl, and it is about how she feels about not having a mother. "But if I could change one thing, I would add a mother." I also believe it is for more mature older girls rather than immature girls because some of the events in the story are more mature. If I had to rate this book from 1-10, I would definitely give this book an 8, because I really enjoyed the storyline and the overall feel of the story. The story was really interesting because there are not any other books I have read that have such a fascinating story line. Secret Ingredient is a book mainly about learning to appreciate what makes you different from everyone else and, about love and finding out who we really are.

Review written by Laura (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of The Secret Ingredient for this review.

Have you read The Secret Ingredient? How would you rate it?