"Bee Bakshi and the Gingerbread Sisters" is a middle-grade novel that blends mystery, family dynamics, and a touch of spookiness. The book has an excellent ending and keeps readers on edge with its unpredictable plot twists. Set during a family retreat at a lake, the story follows Bee, who struggles with her cultural identity and feelings about her Indian heritage. The novel vividly portrays her mother’s cooking and the family’s dynamics, adding depth to Bee’s journey of self-acceptance and redemption. This atmospheric and engaging read is perfect for the spooky season, and it has left me eager to explore more of Emi Pinto’s work.

I read this book for consideration for inclusion in a curriculum package for Curriculum Associates.
Thank you for the e-arc, we greatly appreciated the opportunity to review this pre-publication.

This was such a fun book and not what I expected at all! Think Hansel and Gretel meets Wait Till Helen Comes. Bee is a quirky kid who just loves books, but is stuck at the lake with her family, BORING. But when she meets a cool new friends across the lake, everything seems great. It’s going to be an amazing summer! Or is it? Does the dorky kid next door know something she doesn’t? Can she trust him? And what about the which her new friend keeps warning her about? Who can Bee trust? What starts out the worst summer ever, ends in a surprising twist Bee never saw coming.

I really liked this story as it had good cultural representation for kids and a fantastical and mysterious element to it. Even though it had that vibe, it wouldn't be too scary for kids to read.

This books takes Hansel and Gretel as it's central premise but does a lot to make it unique. There are many elements here unique to this story. Yes, there is a witch who takes children. But there's also social pressure, magical loons, an abandoned house on an island, ghosts, and lots of magic. It's far more complex magic than we see in the original story. And it does a lot more to explore interpersonal relationships and motivations. It's perhaps a bit odd, a bit reliant on some peculiar details, but remains worth reading.

Lovely moody tale of learning to love and understand yourself. I think most middle schoolers will find something they can relate to in this book. I as an adult remembered this time in my life and would recommend it to my younger self. A message worth sharing in a spooky, delightful package.

3.5 stars

This was a fun middle grade story about being true to who you are and surrounding yourself with people who accept that. There's also messages that everyone deserves kindness and a second chance to change. I enjoyed Bee's culture and the many delicious foods her family ate, as well as seeing her embrace that she's different and that's okay.

The paranormal part of the story was good, but not necessarily my favorite part. There was a bit of play on Hansel and Gretel and luring kids into a trap that was interesting and I liked that the witch wasn't what she seemed.

The friendship in this is super cute and I would be friends with Lucas if I could!

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Katherine Tegen Books and NetGalley for the copy.

Bee Bakshi is constantly concerned about what others will think about her family, especially since her family’s behavior and customs are so different from those shared by seemingly everyone else around them in Canada. So, when Bee and her parents and her Granny pack up for a week at a friend’s cottage near Storm Lake, Bee is increasingly on edge as more people come into their sphere. But Storm Lake is not the peaceful getaway it first appears to be, and when strange things begin to appear with greater frequency, Bee steps into the role of her favorite storybook heroine Betsy Chillers in an effort to survive.

This chilling middle grade mystery is equal parts tween coming of age and intriguing, horror-centric plot. Bee has left her only friend Kitty, who is spending the same week at a fancy, Betsy Chillers-themed resort in Florida; but what begins as a deep longing to be with Kitty quickly turns into a difficult realization that Kitty is not as good a friend as Bee once thought. On the shores of Storm Lake, Bee encounters others with whom she connects on a richer level, and she begins to discover what friendship really looks like. Despite her embarrassment over her family’s unusual behaviors and her desire to not have to wear hand-me-down clothes, Bee spends the week becoming more comfortable in her own skin no matter what others happen to think.

Storm Lake is a spooky place from the minute Bee and her family arrive, and ominous characters and happenings pepper the otherwise benign text. As the story continues, however, the intensity of the unusual occurrences increases, and these moments enhance the level of fear. Gingerbread becomes a focal point of the narrative, and readers will observe similarities between Hansel and Gretel in this significantly modernized approach to the story. Good writing and colorful characters keep the momentum of the story in motion, and middle grade readers who enjoy light, youth-appropriate horror will enjoy Bee’s story. This is a good addition to library collections for young readers, especially because they will eagerly await subsequent installments.

My thanks goes to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Katherine Tegen Books for an ARC. All opinions are my own, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retellings, Coming-of-Age
Age: Middle grade (7-12 years old)

BEE BAKSHI AND THE GINGERBREAD SISTERS is a spooky tale of getting lost, not being found, and possibly returning home.

Bee is relatable. She's a bit mouthy to her family, struggling to fit in, and doesn't really know who she is. I think most kids around 12 feel like they don't know their place—but with her Indian background, she seems to suffer from double the embarrassment because she thinks people will find her culture "weird." Poor thing! (I'd want to come to her family's party, but she doesn't get that.)

For a minute, I was confused because the first friend in this book is a boy—not a sister. But when she starts talking to the older girl (Alina), it all made sense.

This is a book about friendship, loving others, acceptance, and strength from family.

I enjoyed this book immensely—and yeah, carnivals are not my favorite places...
The spook factor is just right for kids in elementary school.

I highly recommend this book!

Happy (ghost hunting) reading!

This was an awesomely spooky story about a girl learning to embrace who she is in the setting of a ghost story. Bee is embarrassed by her family, her second-hand clothes, and the fact that she has to spend her vacation in a cottage on a lake instead of at an amusement park with her judgmental best friend. But she finds a new friend at the lake. A friend who is cool, adventurous and a bit troubling. It turns out this new friend has quite a history. I loved the eerie setting, the touch of magic, and the rich characters in this Hansel and Gretel inspired novel!

While this was a sweet read about how friendships should and should not shape who we are as kids, there was something disconnected in the plot. I enjoyed Bee and her family but the story could have flowed a lot smoother than it did.

Easy read, thank you Netgalley! I received an ARC for an open and honest review of the book, and I thought for a story 'inspired by Hansel and Gretel' it was a pretty good inspired story. I felt that I didn't connect with it as much as I was hoping that I would, but this is something that I would still pick up for my ten year old once it is released. I will also look into more books by Emi Pinto and see if they are able to resonate better. All in all, I would read it again.

A fun ghost mystery with a sweet twist! Students are going to love this story about learning what true friendship looks like. No more changing yourself to fit someone else’s ideas of what you should be!

I read this book in one sitting and thought it was pretty good/spooky for a middle grade book. For me, Bee was very hard for me to like as a character. She was whiny and disrespected her parents at every turn with little to no consequences. Overall, I enjoyed this spin on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. I really think middle schoolers will really enjoy this one. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review!

This was a great adventure that I shared with my kids. We all enjoyed it very much! There was so much happening that you don’t get a break from all the action!

“Sometimes ghosts are more like feelings haunting us for reasons we don’t understand yet.”

This is a fun book with a nice lesson and an inventive horror spin on a familiar fairy tale. I appreciate that Bee realizes her friend isn’t good and that she shouldn’t care what others think so much about her, but the big thing I struggled with as a reader was understanding why she cared so much what Kitty specifically thought in the first place, and why Kitty held so much power over her. She was so unnecessarily mean to Lucas because she thought Kitty wouldn’t like him (not to mention her family), but Kitty wasn’t even there with her that summer, so I struggled to connect with the stakes of why she conformed so hard, and what she saw of as a friend in Kitty (like, why be friends with this all-around awful person?). It made it hard to like her when watching her be so over the top mean to friends and family, though I felt for her when she saw how she changed to conform to Kitty’s expectations. There is a fun twist on ghosts at the end that was nicely earned, and I really loved the atmosphere of this book. All in all, a cute read, but maybe will connect more with neurotypical than neurodivergent readers.

The spooky twist on Hansel & Gretel is very original, with lots of “breadcrumbs” of spooky stuff to draw in the reader. However, I am not sure it got spooky enough fast enough for the attention of my upper elementary readers. As an adult, I found Bee to be very unlikeable. It’s hard to put myself in the shoes of my students, who are much younger and may need the “be yourself” message more, but I think that message works better when we care about the main character. It was really hard to care about Bee, which also made it hard to keep reading.

As for purchasing, I think that it works well if you have students who like twisted fairy tales with more world-building and slower unfolding of the story.

I'm going to start with the end (without spoilers) by saying that this novel has an awesome ending.
The plot twists in the middle weren't totally predictable and the parts that were only built awesome tension. Like sometimes we as readers know more and keep shouting at the pages to inform the main character to stop walking towards that really dangerous place? Like that. And sometimes I had to keep myself from peeking ahead at the next pages. Ahah. So exciting.

The middle-grade part of this eerie, super cool spooky story presents us with a family spending some days at a lake. It seems Bee is a bit ashamed of her Indian family. I love the reference to the mother's cooking (and so many references to flavors, spices, Indian curries, and lassi). Also the detail of her mother's obsession with saving money whenever she can. The father is a fun character too and the Granny is lovely.

Our main character is in crisis when it comes to identity also her family's identity, dealing with acceptance of oneself or family traditions or culture, and trying to belong to an idealized family when there is no such thing. This will lead her to mistakes but also to her journey of honesty and redemption (with some cool rewards).

Fun, mysterious and atmospheric reading for the spooky season. This is my first contact with the works of this author and made me curious for more.

I got this arc from NetGalley, my opinions are my own and honest.

Love a boring-family-vacation-gone-off-the-rails story, and this one is great! Bee gets stuck going to a lake cottage with the fam when all she wants to do is jet off with her friend to an amusement park. What could be worse? Storm Lake isn't just a place without cell service, it has spooky happenings at every corner. Soon Bee is drawn into a fairy tale come to life that puts her in enough danger to make even the Brothers Grimm yell ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! This book had me guessing at every turn right until the very end. It is the best of folklore in that it is an excellent story in its own right and also makes us question how we see ourselves in the world, and in Bee's case, what we're willing to put up with from our friends in order to fit in and how we can expect better to be loved for being exactly who we are. And excuse me but the use of breadcrumbs here is absolutely brilliant. I think middle grade readers are going to devour this book and ask if they can make some gingerbread and then eye it very suspiciously. Thank you to much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read early.

This is a take on hazel and Gretel which has a spooky and eerie take on it. We follow bee as she just want to fit in . This was a fun YA read that will keep you entertained until the end