When the Spoffard family finds itself in possession of a relative’s house/chocolate shop, twins Oz and Lily aren’t quite sure what to think. When they discover that the new place includes magic, a talking cat, and talking rat they are intrigued. But they really didn’t anticipate that the cat would recruit them to be secret agents.
Their mission is to stop a rogue family member who is trying to create an immortality potion (and of course, deliver it into the hands of evil). But the stakes become much higher when Oz is captured during their very first outing.
On the surface, there’s a lot to like about The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop. Magical chocolate, magical animals, kids who get to go on adventures, evil relatives that are evil more in the rubbing your hands together and cackling way rather than in any sort of scary way… but unfortunately, it just sort of fell flat for me. Most bad guys were poorly thought out and developed, which makes the story harder to go for, and the rehabilitation of others is so complete it’s nearly unbelievable. I kept expecting (maybe hoping?) for an evil twist.
But what really concerned me wasn’t the actual murders or kidnapping, it was the things in the story that weren’t really supposed to be too scary which I thought were pretty upsetting (and might even be more so to parents reading this aloud than to children). Towards the end of the book, some action hinges around whether or not the life of the twins yet-to-be-born sibling can be saved. Infant death is a really scary and touchy topic. It happens, and of course, the families that survive it should see their experiences reflected in books, but not as a sort of plot device. We also learn that Lily and Oz were meant to be triplets, but one was “lost” (I’m going to assume in utero). And all of a sudden they have a revelation that the voices they’ve been hearing/feeling since early childhood belong to this dead triplet. I’ve certainly read about that sort of thing in the woo-woo-ier parts of the internet, but it’s an odd choice in a children’s book.
My final complaint is the parents. Not so much that they are completely oblivious to their children’s whereabouts most of the time, but rather their treatment of their daughter. Lily has dyslexia and struggles in school. She also has some other issues which point to other psychological concerns (needing to follow certain routines slavishly before bed, etc.) The parents handle this by engaging tutors that Lily hates in order to help her in school. But also, even better? Her father calls her “Nutella” as a sweet little pet name, because he thinks she’s “nutty.” You know, as in crazy. While I love encountering characters with learning disorders (and even more serious disorders) who are competent in other things and have normal relationships with people, I am aghast that the model of a parent light-heartedly mocking these issues is used in this book.
This would be fine for third and fourth graders, but I’d steer clear of offering it or reading it aloud to any children who’ve suffered a infant death in the family and I’d talk about how horrid the father is with any child who has a learning disorder.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Mother has a new baby on the way. Dad kisses Mum. Uncle Isadore was in love with his brother’s girl. A character has an ex-wife.
Profanity – “stupid,” “damnation” which is used in the phrase “eternal damnation,”
Death, Violence and Gore – A great-uncle has died and left someone a house. Evidently it was assumed he died with his brothers years prior in a tram accident. Lily believes that the house might be haunted. Pierre might have been murdered. A man tackles another man and bashes his head. A boy is kidnapped. A rat wishes an army of rats would tear a man limb from limb. In trying to kill an immortal rat, a man burned him in a fire all night. There is a ghost elephant. The rats swarm to eat a “big dead thing” and Lily is afraid they mean her brother. It’s really just a giant dead rat. A gun is held to a boy’s head. A boy’s throat is gripped. Someone is killed with poisoned chocolate. Another person is carrying a gun. There was an explosion (likely a bomb) on a subway line. An immortal character is threatened with Prometheus’s fate – having his entrails ripped out daily. A vision shows the new baby in a coffin.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – a rat smokes a cigarette. The rat has been drunk in the past. Isadore (an adult) drinks whiskey. Isadore repeatedly offers wine to a child, but the child refuses. Isadore is accused of getting drunk. The rat once went to a party that had a whole case of gin. Isadore offers rum to a child. Isadore drinks an entire bottle of rum.
Frightening or Intense Things – Someone sold chocolate that makes you immortal to the Nazis. But evidently the person’s magic wasn’t good because the Nazis died anyway. Right now, they’re worried he’ll sell this chocolate to a terrorist gang. A boy in Caydon’s class set fire to a shed. There are goblins. They’re not particularly scary the way their written in the book, but I don’t know, maybe someone has a terror of goblins.
