Booktastic!

You can tell a children’s book is well written when the grown-ups love it too.

You can tell it’s really well written when the grown-ups have to sneak into the children’s bedroom to retrieve it from their clasped hands each night!

The basic premise of Comic Cafe is that the stress of buying a rundown cafe has taken its toll on the parents who individually decide to get away for a while – each assuming the other was staying at home.

Knowing that granny is at the end of the phone if they really need help, the resourceful kids decide not to tell anyone they are on their own and plan to open the cafe – with a little help from online shopping, helpful neighbours and lateral thinking.

There were loads of amusing bits and realistic dialogues.  The central character, Wilf, was adorable!  He was funny, smart and loved art (it was his idea to theme the cafe after the Silver Surfer and copy some Lichtenstein paintings).

Of course, the plan doesn’t go smoothly and the five encounter strange visitors, experience spooky sounds, uncover a secret basement and manage to solve a few mysteries along the way.

Suspend your disbelief in the implausibility of it all – enjoy the realistic sibling interchanges, revel in the wordplay and marvel at their teamwork.