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Rupert Kingfisher's Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles is a deliciously odd little fairy tale for 9 year olds about a girl who can cook and an uncle who won't let her.
Every summer, while her parents go off on safaris and cruises, Madeleine is packed off to her uncle's restaurant in Paris. It's called the Squealing Pig. Monsieur Lard thinks he's a great chef. He is, in fact, the worst chef in the world (Pig's Ear Pizza, anyone? Crab Ravioli in a Warm White Chocolate Sauce?).
Madeleine is the best cook in the kitchen, but she's only allowed to wash up and smile. Lard insists that everyone smiles. Once, she made him a lovely lemony soup. When he found out it was hers, he tipped the whole pot out of the window.
Then one day she's sent out for pâté, follows a mysterious white cat down a winding alley and finds a shop called Edibles. It's dark, candlelit and full of the strangest food you've ever heard of. Minotaur Salami. Pterodactyl Bacon. Scorpion Tails in Smoked Garlic Oil. Its owner is Madame Pamplemousse, who appears and vanishes like smoke, and who lives with a one-eyed cat called Camembert.
Madeleine comes back with the wrong pâté. The Head Chef bursts into tears ("He will boil us alive!"). But one taste of that little green jar changes everything, and Lard is soon desperate to get his greedy hands on more.
It's a very funny read with a real fairy-tale feel. The food lists are the best bit. Your reader will want to read them out loud and argue about which one they'd dare to try! Madame Pamplemousse is wonderfully mysterious too. She says very little, and you never quite know what she's thinking.
Lard is a proper pantomime baddie. He bullies his staff, fools his customers and at one point grabs Madeleine and shakes her. The book calls him fat and piggy quite a lot, which is part of the old-fashioned villain joke. There's also a very old chef who dies of happiness at dinner. It's played for laughs, but it's worth knowing about if your reader takes things literally.
This is a treat for a child who likes cooking, gross-out food or stories where the quiet, kind person finally gets noticed.
If it leaves them hungry for more cooking, try The Secret Cooking Club, about a girl called Scarlett who starts baking in secret in the empty kitchen next door, because it's the one place she feels calm.
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