When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie

Erin Soderberg Downing's When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie is a family story for 8 year olds about three children, their dad and a very grubby food truck.

What happens

The Peaches' mum died nearly two years ago. Since then Dad has buried himself in his work, and twelve-year-old Lucy has quietly become the one who fixes everything.

Then a huge orange truck reverses up the drive and knocks the recycling everywhere. One of Mum's inventions has sold for a LOT of money. Dad has given a big chunk to charity, saved most of the rest and spent a small slice on a used food truck, because travelling the country in one was one of Mum's big dreams. So this summer the family are going to sell pie.

Nobody has the faintest idea how to run a food truck. The inside smells like a bin. Dad stays up all night baking test pies and then announces they'll be camping, not staying in hotels (Lucy's reaction is priceless). There's a food truck festival in Ohio with a big cash prize, and winning it becomes the family goal.

The chapters swap between the three children, and they couldn't be more different. Freddy is all art projects and random facts, and secretly thinks he's the family failure. Herb is eight, brilliant at maths and the kind of boy who finds three baby mice in the truck and decides to keep them. Lucy just wants a normal summer with her friends and a pile of books.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Their mum died of cancer and she's there on nearly every page. It's all backstory, nothing that happens during the book, but Lucy remembers the months of knowing it was coming and Herb remembers the cushion they gave Mum during chemotherapy. For a child who has lost someone recently that could hit hard.

For a reader who likes family stories with real feeling under the jokes, it's warm and funny and quietly hopeful. It's also lovely on siblings who drive each other mad and still look out for each other. And who wouldn't want pie for breakfast? (Dad insists.)

What to read next

If this one goes down well, the Peaches are back in The Peach Pit, when Great Aunt Lucinda (whose peach pie recipe they're selling) decides to give the family her creaky old mansion.