Veera Hiranandani’s Cooking Club Chaos is a warm, funny school story for 7 year olds about a girl who can’t bear watching her best friend eat the same boring lunch every day.<\/p>\n
Phoebe G. Green is a foodie. (The G is for Gertrude, after a great-grandma who could cook like nobody’s business.) She loves trying new things, and she has lots of opinions about them.<\/p>\n
Her friend Sage does not. Every single day he brings a plain turkey sandwich, a bendy cheese stick, some popcorn, an apple he never eats and a juice box he always spills down his shirt.<\/p>\n
Phoebe finds this very sad. Mum and Dad tell her to let Sage eat what he likes. Phoebe smiles and says okay, but deep down in her tummy she isn’t so sure.<\/p>\n
So she and her other best friend, Camille, hatch a plan. A cooking club! If Sage cooks new food, surely he’ll want to eat it?<\/p>\n
Their teacher, Mrs B, turns it into a proper after-school class. Parents take turns to teach. There’s chocolate mousse with Camille’s dad, who is a real pastry chef, and pork dumplings (Sage says his tastes like hand lotion). Then samosas, enchiladas and, last of all, matzo ball soup from Phoebe’s mum. Phoebe is extremely nervous about that one, because Mum isn’t really much of a cook.<\/p>\n
It’s Phoebe’s voice that makes it. She makes lists about everything, including a list of all the things that make no sense to her. She’s puzzled that Mrs B has new glasses and never puts them on. She shouts “Hold all of your horses!” when things get out of hand. You’re right inside her head, and she’s very good company.<\/p>\n
There’s something real underneath the fun too. Who hasn’t tried to get a friend to love their favourite thing? Phoebe means well, but she gets upset with Sage when he says he doesn’t like chocolate, and she has to work out why she cares so much.<\/p>\n
This isn’t Phoebe’s first story (she and Camille have already been to France together), but it’s easy to jump in here.<\/p>\n
If your reader likes a story that’s all about food, and about somebody who won’t eat what everyone else is enjoying, try The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop next. Laddoo turns up one rainy night on the doorstep of an uncle who runs the village sweetshop. Then he announces he’s never been fond of sweets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Veera Hiranandani’s Cooking Club Chaos is a warm, funny school story for 7 year olds about a girl who can’t bear watching her best friend eat the same boring lunch every day. Phoebe G. Green is a foodie. (The G is for Gertrude, after a great-grandma who could cook like nobody’s business.) She loves trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12946,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8949,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop","lr_seo_hook":"One boy, the same plain lunch every single day, and a friend with a plan."},"book_tag":[25],"age_group":[19],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[1009],"class_list":["post-7111","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-friendship-books","age_group-books-for-7-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-veera-hiranandani"],"yoast_title":"Cooking Club Chaos! by Veera Hiranandani | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"One boy, the same plain lunch every single day, and a friend with a plan. For ages 7+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n