The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix

Kate Saunders's The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix is a magical adventure for 9 year olds that starts with armed police arresting the family cat.

What happens

The cat is Demerara. She's golden, bossy, immortal and able to talk, and on this particular Saturday she's having her claws painted purple. Then a helicopter swoops over 18 Skittle Street and the house fills up with police.

Only the twins, Oz and Lily, and their friend Caydon know what's really going on. Their mum and dad can't see magic at all. They think it was a gas explosion!

It turns out Demerara found a few crumbs of old magic chocolate, ate them and went back in time. She asked Queen Elizabeth I for a snack. A whole new chapter has now appeared in an ancient history book, and the secret government department that deals with magic is NOT amused.

That scene is a joy. Demerara is outraged to be paw-cuffed. She demands a lawyer. She keeps her curlers in her cheek fur the whole time.

But the trouble is only just starting. Caydon has a terrifying vision of a golden bird burning itself up and rising again. Oz and Lily's music teacher is found scorched and smoking in a broom cupboard. And the family's ancestors once made a gilded chocolate phoenix out of time-travel chocolate. Where is it now?

The adventure also takes the children back to wartime London, where a famous cathedral is in danger from fire.

It's very cosy despite all the drama. Lily is the worrier, and she has dyslexia and a tutor she really likes. Oz is sensible. Caydon wants a job with lots of action. Spike, the scruffy talking rat, keeps everyone calm (and eats a lot of cheese).

If your reader likes their magic funny, with talking animals and a bit of real danger, they'll love this one.

What to read next

This follows the twins' adventure in The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop, so if they haven't met the Spoffards yet, start there. It's where the family first inherits the old chocolate workshop on Skittle Street.