Madame Pamplemousse and the Enchanted Sweet Shop

Rupert Kingfisher's Madame Pamplemousse and the Enchanted Sweet Shop is a dark, delicious fairy tale for 9 year olds set on the little islands in the middle of Paris.

What happens

Madeleine is a gifted young cook. At school she's been popular, until a new girl called Mirabelle arrives. Bit by bit, Mirabelle takes over her group of friends. Then one Monday nobody at the lunch table will speak to Madeleine at all.

She's too ashamed to tell anyone, not even Madame Pamplemousse or her cat, Camembert. So she ends up crying alone in Notre-Dame.

That's where a kind, rosy-cheeked lady finds her. Madame Bonbon runs a brand new sweet shop called Sweet Dreams, and she gives Madeleine a white chocolate truffle shaped like a crescent moon.

It tastes strange. For a moment Madeleine feels wonderfully happy. Then she feels worse than before, and she wants another one straight away. Do you see where this is going?

The school scenes are painfully real. Anyone who's ever dreaded walking into a dinner hall will recognise the whispering and the giggling, and the way Madeleine starts picking her food so nobody laughs at it.

Then there's the magic, and it's properly creepy. A doll with a moon for a face sits in the sweet shop window. Later a man with that same painted face turns up in Madeleine's dreams.

Madame Pamplemousse's shop is a joy by contrast. Where else could you buy Jellied Basilisk Eyes or Pickled Swedish Lake Monster? And Camembert, a talking cat with a patch over one eye, is a brilliant grumpy sidekick.

It's worth being aware that this one is darker than it looks. The bullying is described closely. Madame Bonbon's own childhood is told too, and it's a hard one. Her father locks her in a cellar for two whole days, and as a girl she tries to poison a whole village. A cat is also mistreated off the page.

A reader going through friendship trouble might find the canteen scenes a bit close to home, or they might find it really comforting to see it written down. For a child who loves stories with a shiver in them, it's a treat.

What to read next

It isn't Madeleine's first adventure with Madame Pamplemousse (she's already been time travelling), so if your reader wants to see how she first found the shop, try Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles, where she's stuck working in her horrible uncle's restaurant.