Everything on a Waffle
"My name is Primrose Squarp. I am eleven years old. I have hair the color of carrots in apricot glaze (recipe to follow), skin fair and clear where it isn't freckled, and eyes like summer storms."
Readers will know right from the start that the narrator of Everything on a Waffle is going to tell her story straight and pull no punches. Primrose's parents have been lost at sea, but she believes without an iota of doubt that they are still alive, somewhere.
She moves in with her Uncle Jack, but feels generally friendless. Her only real refuge is a local restaurant called The Girl on the Red Swing, where the owner, Miss Bowzer, serves everything on waffles — except advice and good sense, which come free of charge and are always reliable.
Food in general plays an important role in Primrose's journey toward peace and understanding (a recipe dictated in her unmistakable voice is appended to each chapter), and readers will eagerly cheer her on through this funny, bittersweet story.
Boston Globe - Horn Book Award Honor Book (2001); ALA Notable Book (2001); Child Magazine Best Book Award (2001); Parents' Choice Fiction Gold Award (2001); Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award (2001); Newbery Honor Book (2002); International White Ravens (2002); Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize 2002)
About the Coal Harbour Series
Books in series order
- 1.Everything on a Waffle(2001)
- 2.One Year in Coal Harbour(2012)
Reading age: 10+ years
This series should be read in order.
Primrose Squarp simply knows her parents did not perish at sea during a terrible storm, but try convincing the other residents of Coal Harbour on that score. For all practical purposes, at least for the time being, Primrose is an orphan, and there’s no great clamoring of prospective adopters.
After realising the impracticality of continuing to pay Miss Perfidy (a mothball-scented elderly lady) an hourly wage to baby-sit her, the town council is able to locate a relative, Uncle Jack, who reluctantly takes Primrose into his care. Primrose does warm up to living with him and in his home, despite the eerie noises resembling a hockey game that haunt her in the night.
But true sanctuary can always be found at a restaurant called The Girl in the Swing, where everything—including lasagna—is served on a waffle, and where the proprietor, Miss Bowzer, offers a willing ear, as well as sage advice. Through a mixture of eccentric humor and probing philosophy, author Polly Horvath makes Primrose’s search for peace and understanding a most memorable one.