Cafe Chaos: My Family Is Not a Piece of Cake

Café Chaos by Catherine Wilkins is a heart-warming story, served up with a large dollop of humour and decorated throughout with Kate Abey’s fab illustrations. This appealing presentation, with a variety of font styles and page decorations - rather like a school notebook or diary - will no doubt grab the attention of newly independent readers.

On Hope's first day at secondary school, she and her best friend Leila are shocked to find that the bully from primary school, Skyla, is there too. How are they going to manage, will Hope ever be able to be herself and not worry about what others think?

Hope lives with her Mum, Dad, older sister Stacey and her cousin, Connor, above her family's café. Unfortunately, the café’s finances are in a bad way, her parents are working double shifts and they need to start making a profit soon or they may have to close. Then when Hope's Auntie Rita turns up unexpectedly for a visit, Hope starts to think things can't get much worse, especially since Rita will be sharing her room! Hope's life is descending into chaos and nobody at home, especially her mum, has time to listen to her.

Wilkins has intertwined several issues that children of Hope's age might be familiar with; working parents, family upset, bullying, while also showing how some of these can be resolved. Reading about how Hope's family work together, despite how hopeless things seem at times, gives a great message to readers of all ages.

This would be a fabulous class reader, an ideal read-for-pleasure book with some great points for easy discussion. An all-round super book for middle grade readers.

272 pages / Reviewed by Sam, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 9+

Cafe Chaos: My Family Is Not a Piece of Cake is the charmingly warm and downright funny new book, featuring main character, Hope Crumble, her fabulously engaging family members, and their trials and tribulations running the struggling family business Café Crumble. The "quiet" one in the family hierarchy, Hope, is also trying to navigate the new rules and social ladder of secondary school - no easy task when the family café demands so much of everyone's time and attention.

The story is witty and lively to read with the entertaining, fresh narrative voice of young, likeable Hope feeling relevant and relatable to young readers. This is complemented by the energetic layout of the book itself; from the hot pink front cover with colourful, cartoon-style illustrations to drawings, captions and interjections ( by Katie Abey) spread liberally throughout the story.

The family Crumble is at the mercy of the bank manager and the café needs some drastic drumming-up of business ideas. Cue the acting skills of big sister Stacey, hosting poetry nights and Grandma Margery's unique baking concoctions - oh, and Hope, being asked to dress up as a giant ice cream outside her new secondary school, to advertise the café's offerings. Hope will do anything for her family, despite the fact she is being unpleasantly picked on and maliciously singled out for being so called "rich" by primary school arch-enemy Skyla Lipton.

I loved this story by Catherine Wilkins, and it was so much more than I expected it to be. The gloriously hilarious family Crumble are a delight to read about, with their family in-jokes, emergency meetings and family loyalties and bickering. Yet there is a note of reality with the family genuinely being in financial dire straits. Hope herself is a determined, bright and empathetic character but is going through some nasty school traumas, trying to fit in and yet be true to herself. The BFF connection between Hope and Leila is wonderfully warm hearted and positive - a real inspiration to readers of a similar age.

Café Chaos is a huge helping of joy in which family issues, school and social relationships and worries about daily life are also safely explored, connecting with the contemporary readers experiences whilst cocooning them in laughs and positivity along the way.

272 pages / Reviewed by Jennifer Caddick, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 9+