bkmuse7 's review for:

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath

5.0

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I've read this book before and thought it was okay, but listening to it on our recent vacation gave me a new appreciation for it. I love Polly Horvath's work. It can be a bit quirky, but her tone and style is very distinctive, and I think I'm predisposed to it. My husband asked soon after it started if it was by the same author who wrote The Trolls, which we listened to on a trip last spring. Kathleen McInerney gave voice to Primrose, a very engaging young heroine. I like Horvath's strong, independent young women characters, and Primrose is definitely an independent thinker and quite determined. She believes that her parents are alive even though the whole town thinks they must have died in a storm at sea. She asks different characters at different times the question, "Haven't you ever just know something deep in your heart without reason?" Primrose manages to find a home and create family in nontraditional ways despite trying circumstances. I myself doubted that her parents could have survived, but wanted them to for Primrose's sake. She maintains hope against all odds -- is she naive or stupid or actually really smart, in the best way that children can be? The title comes from a restaurant, The Girl on a Swing, where everything is served on a waffle. The boys had fun for days after listening thinking of foods they wanted, or couldn't imagine, being served on a waffle. And they decided that if you just wanted a waffle, you'd need to order butter!