Cocoa Magic by Sandra Bradley, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
This lovely picture book tells a story set in historical Charlottetown. The main character, Daniel is eight years old and one of the highlights of his day is going, before school in the morning, to help his Uncle Lewis at his chocolate shop. He's been doing this for years, and is involved in all aspects of making the chocolates that the shop sells, from mixing and tempering, to pouring and molding.
When Daniel sees a new girl at school who looks lonely he decides to start leaving chocolates in her desk to surprise her. When that works even better than he expected, he starts noticing other children that need cheering up and begins leaving treats for them as well, until there comes a day when he leaves treats for everyone, with the help of his uncle.
Shortly after, he finds himself the one feeling sad and without chocolates to console him, and he makes a new discovery.
The author is also a clinical social worker and here she illustrates the importance of empathy in our lives and the connections that we have to others.
I loved the pictures here as well, including the ones of individual chocolates in the endpapers. The children show as detailed individuals and one gets a sense of the period from the details in the pictures.
A great book for any season.
No comments:
Post a Comment