Maw Books

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Dessert First by Hallie Durand is a perfect book for the middle grade reader in your life (heck -  it was perfect for this thirty something woman too!).  Warning:  do not read this book while you are hungry.  Throughout the narrative of this yummy book you’ll encounter the following desserts: Death by Chocolate, chocolate cake snickers cake, petit four, chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing covered with M&M’s, pineapple upside-down cake, seven-layer bar, raspberry truffle bar, snickerdoodles, apricot pocket, fondue, lemon squares, rice pudding, and core to the heart of the story Grandma Reine’s Double-Deckers.  I seriously think I need to approach Hallie Durand and ask for an author interview because I HAVE to have the recipe for Grandma Reine’s Double-Deckers.  They sounded delicious. Oh, how I hope they weren’t made up!

Dessert is a character to love.  Eight-years-old and in third grade, she knows what she loves and what she doesn’t.  What she loves is dessert.  And coming from a food family, dessert is not hard to come by.  Not only do her parents own a fondue restaurant but at home they ALWAYS eat dessert.  As you can see from the list above, they are always yummy!

When her teacher at school challenges the children to give up something that they love for two weeks for a fundraiser Dessert knows that she should give up dessert because that would be much easier than yucky mayonnaise.  She’d rather not give up dessert at all but when she gets tricked into it, she’s stuck.  Can she go two weeks without dessert?  Add on top  of that, the call of the Double-Deckers which she just can’t resist.  Plus a huge mistake will have Dessert learning how to say sorry.

While getting ready to review Dessert First, I started skimming the book quickly but found myself flipping back to page one and reading the entire thing over again.  I couldn’t help myself.  Dessert is a riot.  I loved her.  She’s fun, spunky and the narrative was really entertaining. Highly recommended for the early readers in your life.  Better yet, would be perfect for a girls book club combined with a baking session.  Yum!

Links of interest:  More book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction.  Approx ages 9-12.
Publisher:  Atheneum.  May 19, 2009
Hardcover, 160 pages.  ISBN:  1416963855
Dessert First is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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