Monday, March 16, 2009

2002 Newbery Honor Book, Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath

 http://www.calvert.lib.md.us/Constant_Contact/November/everything_waffle.jpg

 

This is the story of a little girl, Primrose, whose parents are killed in a storm while they are out boating. The bodies of her parents aren’t found, so she continues to maintain that they are just shipwrecked on an island somewhere, and that they will be rescued and will come home soon. She knows that nobody believes her, but she doesn’t seem to care. She still goes to the pier to look for them every day.

Primrose is taken in by her uncle, who is a unique character, and not always a good parent, but he loves his niece and he works hard to treat her right.

Primrose has many older acquaintances, but the one associated with the title is Miss Bowzer. She runs a restaurant called Everything on a Waffle, where she indeed serves every item on the menu on a waffle. My favorite of those mentioned was the grilled swordfish on a waffle.

Themes in the book include family, friendship, coping with loss, being an orphan, and love.

Rereading my description of the novel, it doesn’t sound like something I would want to read. I think my summary has not done it justice. Despite what it may seem from this blog post, this is actually a really funny and witty book. Primrose is an entertaining character, and she hardly gives a whim of being a sad or downtrodden protagonist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horvath, P. (2001). Everything on a waffle. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux.

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