Angel Cake

Angel Cake

Angel Cake is the hugely anticipated new novel from every girl's favourite author, Cathy Cassidy.

Anya and her family have just moved from Poland to join her dad in Glasgow, and life has turned upside-down. Anya doesn't fit in at school and her dreams of an idyllic new life in Britain are fading fast.

Then a cute-looking boy in angel wings stops Anya in the street and invites her to the opening of new café, Heaven. It's the best thing that's happened to her in weeks. Anya's not sure about the kids who hang out there, but could this unlikely bunch of misfits be the answer to her prayers?

Angel Cake is a delicious and warm-hearted novel about best friends and belonging

Tell me a little bit about your new book, Angel Cake?

Cathy Cassidy : Angel Cake is all about Polish girl Anya who comes to settle in Britain and finds it's not quite the way she imagined! Falling for Dan, the school bad-boy, doesn't make settling in any easier, and Anya just can't work out whether he's secretly sweet or just a born troublemaker! Can she really trust him? Oh, and there's a bit of a cake theme going on, too, which made the research for this book a LOT of fun!!!


Where did the idea for the book come from?

Cathy Cassidy : A while ago, an Irish friend told me about a boy from Dublin who often walked around the city after dark wearing a pair of angel wings... Nobody seemed to know who he was, and after a few months, he just disappeared! This really intrigued me, and the idea for Angel Cake - and for a boy who might or might not have a streak of angel in him - just grew from there...


You are a well loved author, how does this feel?

Cathy Cassidy : It's brilliant, and still amazes me five years on! I am just so glad to be doing the job I always dreamed of, but knowing kids enjoy reading the stories as much as I love writing them is a fantastic feeling. I get a lot of cool feedback to my website www.cathycassidy.com and this really helps me to stay in touch with what my readers think, and what they want from a book.


What drew you to writing?

Cathy Cassidy : I have always been addicted to daydreaming, and writing the dreams down just took it all a step further! I can't help making up stories in my head, and these days I love weaving those storylines and characters into a book to share with other people. It's brilliant - as an author, you can 'step into the shoes' of a whole new character, see life through their eyes, feel the things they'd feel. And you even get to create a happy ending, too. I guess it's one of the few careers where a talent for daydreaming comes in handy!


At what age group are the majority of your book aimed at?

Cathy Cassidy : Most of my books are aimed at the 9-14 age group, but there is a slightly younger book, Shine On Daizy Star, aimed at 7-11 year olds, coming in July. It's about Daizy, a girl in search of her star quality, and the ups and downs of primary school life... a great intro to my books for younger girls, or even as a mini-read for my regular readers!

This is your eight book, do you have a favourite?

Cathy Cassidy : Angel Cake!!! My favourite changes all the time, but it's usually the newest one... I get a real kick from seeing a scruffy pile of manuscript turn into a cool, beautiful, finished book! It's great to see the characters you've created living out their lives on a printed page... and Dan, Anya, Frankie and Kurt are pretty cool characters. Angel Cake also has my favourite cover of any of my books, ever... I love it!


When you are not writing, what books, or which authors do you read?

Cathy Cassidy : I LOVE reading and get through tons of books, often teen books. I love Aussie writer Jaclyn Moriarty, Americans Jerry Spinelli, Sharon Creech and James Howe, and UK authors Meg Rosoff and Kevin Brooks. At the moment my fave reads are Seriously Sassy by Maggi Gibson and Love, Aubrey by Suzanne La Fleur... both just awesome, and perfect for the 9-12 age group!


Readers love Cathy Cassidy;
"Scarlett is the first book of yours that I have read and it is FABULOUS!! It is one of the best books I have read and I will buy and read more of your AMAZING books!! Scarlett is great and keep writing!!" - Aimee, 10

"Fantastic I loved it so much I cried. It's really good, I finished it in 9 hours straight because I could not put it down, literally !!!!!" - Sara, 11

"This book is full of adventure and fun I loved every minute of it. The ending was sad but magical it brought tears to my eyes!!!!!" - Joey, 13

Cathy Cassidy was born Coventry, UK, in 1962. She wrote her first picture book for her little brother when she was eight, and created and sold her own comics to her friends for 5p. She went to Art College, and then got a job as fiction editor on Jackie magazine (UK). After teaching in a Coventry secondary school for a few years, she moved to Scotland to start a family. As well as writing books she is the agony aunt on Shout magazine (UK) and still teaches part-time. Cathy's previous best-sellers include, Sundae Girl, GingerSnaps, Scarlett, Dizzy & Indigo Blue. She, her husband, and their two children live in a cottage in the Galloway hills with sheep and cows for neighbours.

Angel Cake
Penguin Australia
Author: Cathy Cassidy
Age: 8-13
Price: $14.95


Interview by Brooke Hunter