Madame Pamplemousse and the Enchanted Sweet Shop

Madame Pamplemousse #3

by Rupert Kingfisher

Set in Paris in the wintertime, beloved bakers Madeleine and Madame Pamplemousse return in a deliciously sweet, fairy tale-esque adventure. Madeleine is thrilled to make a new friend, Madame Bonbon, owner of an enchanted sweet shop where the candy itself has magical powers. But Madame Bonbon is actually someone else in disguise-an old enemy from Madame Pamplemousse's past who has come to Paris seeking revenge...

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Cooking, Magic, Fiction, France

176 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2010

About the author

Rupert Kingfisher’s first book, Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles, was highly acclaimed. His favourite authors as a child were Roald Dahl, Susan Cooper and Ursula le Guin. He also loved American horror comics and French cartoon books such as Asterix and Tintin. It was on a family holiday to Paris that he visited a bookshop dedicated to books such as Tintin – and also ate anchovies for the first time, on a pizza from a street vendor. He says that both experiences were equally life-changing.

Rupert studied Philosophy at Bristol University and Play Writing at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Rupert has had plays performed in Dublin, Edinburgh, London and on BBC Radio 4. He grew up in Oxfordshire and now lives in Brentford, Middlesex.

Reviews

[Honoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter is 8 years old and enjoys all the books in this series. I see from the reviews here that some readers find them 'dark ' but they are no darker than many other books children read at this age - Roald Dahl, Harry Potter etc except we have a girl protagonist (hurray!). I think the confusion comes from people who think the pretty artwork is indicative of a saccharine sweet tale for little girls. It isn't - and thank goodness for that. My daughter was picked on at her previous school, so she loved being able to identify with Madeline's feelings of loneliness at school - and enjoyed the happy outcome. The time machine is great fun too. I'd definitely recommend this book for intelligent young readers.

[Mortisha Cassavetes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful series. It follows a little girl named Madeleine and her adventures. Madeleine meets Madame BonBon and her sweet shop. These are very short reads but they are amazingly creative and imaginative. I just love all the potions, sugary sweets, meats and cheeses. Madeleine finds herself in a pickle and Madame Pamplemousse comes to the rescue... maybe. I do recommend these books to all ages.

[Bewitched · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the first Madame Pamplemousse book, the precocious Madeleine escaped from a life of drudgery work to one where she could polish her culinary talents.
I don't know what happened in the second book, because my library doesn't have it. Quelle tragique.
In this one, Madeleine is being bullied at school, and the sense of shame moves her to isolate herself rather than look for support from Madame Pamplemousse and the circle of quirky philosophers, artists, and scientists who patronize her select little shop. Enter Madame Bonbon, a chocolatier with nefarious intentions. She offers Madeleine some truffles, evil truffles, with the same "nutritional" effects of Turkish Delight in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." At first, the truffles are comforting to Madeleine and make her feel better about the vicious bullying of new schoolmate Mirabelle.
"She was chatty and charismatic, supremely confident and the kind of person Madeleine had always wanted to be."
A couple reviewers have complained that this book is about drugs, but I took it as a little more complicated than that. Yes, people, sometimes even children, turn to drugs when they're unhappy; to legal or illegal substances that create addiction or dependency and fail to alleviate the negative moods.
This book, though, seemed to be about sadness and anxiety, about the wrong messages sadness and anxiety send us and the cycle of sadness, followed by isolation, which produces more sadness. Away from school, Madeleine was surrounded by caring, sensitive grown-ups (and a talking cat) who should have been her trusted support group. But the dark voice in the back of her head made her feel that she didn't deserve them and couldn't depend on them.

The villain, Madame Bonbon, had a choice, years ago, to form a relationship, and instead she chose to try to frame that person for mass murder. Her story goal and the person from her past made it clear to me that the book was about the protective role of relationships in mental illness and the key role of kindness in making life matter.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never judge a book by its cover. This book promised to be a charming story by its attractive cover, introduction, and engaging first pages. Unfortunately, thereafter unfolded a dark story that seemed to be a cleverly disguised account of drug usage. Its bullying theme does have merit. However, its dark overtones eventually drowned out its potential for sweet enchantment. Therefore, along with a strong presence of unfamiliar vocabulary, I found this book inappropriately categorized as a children's book. It would be better understood by young adults or older.

[Noémie · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'avais un peu peur que ce dernier tome soit moins original que les deux autres mais finalement il reste dans l'esprit de madame Pamplemousse ! C'était agréable de replonger dans cette saga pour enfants ! :)

[RhiannaH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another exciting story that takes the audience on an adventure with Madeline and Madame Pamplemousse. Appropriate for any age group, the tale is full of mystery, magic and bravery.

[aggereadsalot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading the book i saw some mom’s reviewing that book as a terrifying and not kids appropriate book.
I think the book is kind of “spooky but cute” and as a kid i used to read Lemony Snicket and trust me i turned out perfectly fine 😂. I loved the main message about embracing the uniqueness of ourselves and the message about bullying. If you are a mom reading my review trust me kids nowdays are sadly exposed to worse things than this book (ps keep in mind that i am a certified teacher as well). Anyways i am sad that i didn’t found this book in my childhood i would have loved it.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the adventure when Madeleine went into the world of when Madame Bonbon was young and I loved the way the author describes the character, for example, Mirabelle who bullies Madeline. The best part of the book was when Madeline was in a television cookery show and she ate some of Madame Bonbon's sweets which transported her to a different world because she ate too many. I would recommend this book to people who like scary adventure stories and especially people who like stories set in the beautiful city of Paris.

[Sonu · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books were on my reading list dairy for a long time. It was hard to find books. Finally our library have them. Story goes very fast and its enchanting writing, you just transfer to another place/time or reminds me of stop motion movie I forgot name, while reading it. And I like the illustrations as well. Oh and food names in it, are so many and so old food name if that's the word i can use😅.

[Fiyin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute!

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another Paris fairy tale with charming pen-and-watercolor illustrations, and this one got actively terrifying. As other reviewers noted, the cover does not adequately reflect the dark. But… it’s good. It opens with someone crying in the cathedral. 🥺

I think my favorite scene was when Madame Pamplemousse faced down the villain in her own place and refused to accept the title of witch. “I am a cook! An artist if you must, but not a witch.” And the cat, dryly, was all, “she is certainly my companion but not my mistress,” —nor yet her familiar, thank you very much. Camembert is an excellent cat and an excellent character, and saved the day at least twice.

Structurally, this is an old-fashioned children’s fantasy where enormous amounts of plot progress briskly and everyone ends in a better place. I like thousand-page books too, but compact stories are nice. This end was perhaps a little too tidy, but I’m not mad. I am so glad I gave Rupert Kingfisher’s world a try.

I really liked it for myself, but it would probably give my sensitive middle-grade reader nightmares. Trigger warnings: neglect and child abuse, bullying, kidnapping (?) to the spirit realm.

[Lilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent beginning then we get a bit lost in the story trying to figure out where we are meant to go. But then we realize that the end is worth the journey. It's not necessary to have read the two previous books yet it helps a lot and they are really a fun read. My favorites being in order the 1st, 3rd and 2nd book.
Https://theminimalism.wordpress.com/2...

[Erik Fazekas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oveľa horšie ako jednotka, niekto si povedal, že poďme z toho vyťažiť najviac ako sa dá, a povedzte mi o čom mám písať, lebo mi nič nenapadá, a keďže šikana je momentálne in, tak poďme na to...
Ešte aj tá 1* je veľa... Naozaj by sa hodilo políčko "odpad" z čsfd!

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deceptive...
I found this book on my shelves from when I was a child, and thought I'd give it a read whilst I waited for my book order to arrive. I hadn't realised it was the third book in a series, although that proved to not be a problem at all.

In my opinion, the title and cover are slightly misleading - they give the impression of a magical, enchanting, cute, little sweet shop. The reality is that there is hardly any focus on a sweet shop, and the "enchanted" refers to bad magic rather than good. The story is a lot more dark and twisted than appears - not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of.

I found the story jumped around quite a lot, and lacked depth but I suppose this makes sense as this is a VERY short story. A lot of things remained unexplained, I would have liked to have seen some sort of resolution as to what happened to Madam Bonbon/Coco.

I think particularly young readers may find the book slightly too dark, and perhaps confusing as there are flashbacks/multiple timelines and sophisticated vocabulary.

I do have to say the depiction of bullying was very well done. A lot of children's books would resort to textbook/stereotypical bullying which isn't always the case in real life. The bullying felt very realistic and true-to-live providing a very accurate depiction. A quote that stood out referring to bullies was "Their power lies in turning people against themselves".

Overall, a fairly enjoyable, very quick read, with a good message.

[Brooke Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to my newly-turned-8-year old daughter, to finish up the Pamplemousse series. She loved every one; the darkness was NOT too much (hard eye roll, pearl clutchers) and she only wishes there were more. Like all of these books, we had intended to stretch out the book through the week - and each time my daughter begs for me to keep reading until they are devoured in one day.
The characters were charming, the story line engaging, and overall the series was a fun read. We actually liked this last one the best of all, feeling that the characters had come to full fruition. Thank you, Mr. Kingfisher, for a delightful series with vocabulary that is challenging and enriching.

[Meteora-books · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai aimé ce T3 autant que les autres, voire un peu plus peut être ! Il est plus profond que les autres notamment parce que des thèmes comme le harcèlement ou le regard des autres sont abordés du point de vue d'une enfant. On découvre enfin un peu plus qui est réellement Mme Pamplemousse et les noms des personnages sont toujours aussi drôles! Personnages qui d'ailleurs se sont révélés surprenants dans ce tome, au vu du titre on ne s'attend pas à la tournure prise par l'histoire ni à XD dénouement ! En tout cas, ce qui est sûr, c'est que si une suite est prévue je sais déjà que je la lirai !

[Evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is sophisticated for this age range, while the story is deceptively dark. For all the pink and boutique-like charm of the cover, the plot is something like Alice in Wonderland, with druggish confections and witches with murderous desires. Still very much a child's story in its approach to bullying and the anxiety of acceptance, but wasn't what I was expecting overall. If you're comfortable with A Series of Unfortunate Events, then this will be fine.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much darker than the first two, but Violet and I still loved this book (even though it gave her nightmares). We loved finding out Madame Pamplemousse’s backstory, the creativity of the sweet shop and its displays, and the author’s ambitious attempt to try to tackle the circular nature of time travel to one’s own past within a children’s book. I wish we had more in this series to look forward to - I’m sad this seems to be the last one.

[Marie Leray · Rating 5 out of 5]

À mettre dans les mains de tous les primaires - collégiens pour la façon didactique d'aborder le harcèlement scolaire. Tout en conservant l'empathie pour les antagonistes, ce livre traduit avec justesse les sentiments des personnes victimes de harcèlement, et explique simplement des comportements liés au phénomène d'exclusion. Important de découvrir qu'on peut aussi être abandonné par le système scolaire dans ce genre de cas, mais qu'il y a TOUJOURS une solution.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story about Madame Pamplemousse but it was a little disturbing. A bit creepy, not so sweet story, thought these sweets would be different. I liked it more than the first one and it made me curious about the 2nd but I still need to find a copy. Not so sure I'll read it though. I need to go read something else now.

[ボート • lilbbtpinbookland · Rating 5 out of 5]

มัดแลนด์โดนเพื่อนๆบุลลี่น้อง น้องเสียใจมากแต่ก็ไม่กล้าไปเล่าให้มาดามแปมเปิลมูสฟัง น้องได้เจอมาดามบงบงเจ้าของร้านขนมหวาน ได้กินขนมหวานมาดามน้องหายเศร้า ไม่เสียใจ พอขนมหมดฤทธิ์ก็ต้องกินอีก ยิ่งกินมากเท่าไหร่อันตรายก็เข้าใกล้มัดแลนด์

เล่มสามนี้แฟนตาซีเพิ่มขึ้นไปกว่าเล่มสองอีก ต่างจากเล่มแรกที่ชวนพิศวงสงสัยเท่านั้น มัดแลนด์ได้เจอเรื่องอันตรายแบบที่ไม่รู้ตัว เหมือนฝันแต่ไม่ฝัน สนุกมาก

[Brick · Rating 3 out of 5]

วรรณกรรมเยาวชนเด็กผู้หญิงจากฝรั่งเศส เรื่องราวการอิจฉาในโรงเรียนประถมแถวๆ เกาะอิล แซง หลุยส์ในปารีส โดยเด็กๆ ในเรื่องมีตัวช่วยเป็นแม่มดที่ทำอาหารเก่ง อาวุธลับห้ำหั่นในเรื่องคือเวทมนตร์ในขนมหวาน อ่านแล้วก็รู้สึกว่าสมกับเป็นวรรณกรรมเด็กจากเมืองที่เป็นต้นกำเนิดแห่งมิชลิน สตาร์จริงๆ

[Ana Martínez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic children’s book. I got bored and I started it at 12 and I finished it at 2 AM and let me tell you 2 AM mixed with a traumatizing child story is not a good mix. IM SORRY THE MOON MAN WAS NOT IT. Anywho. I liked it, it was pretty fun. It was cutsy and all, loved the pink Paris aesthetic.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect ending to an excellent, imaginative and beautiful trilogy! I adore this book so much. I love the characters and the way the plot perfectly fits together. The ending was simple yet effective and fuffilling

[Sean Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kingfisher Feathers #3
Madame Pamplemousse #3
Third and seemingly final book in the series is another cracking adventure/fantasy yarn, with interesting characters and a great story.
The only sad part is it is all over so soon and there are no more stories to read in this series.

[Books of Magic · Rating 4 out of 5]

****4.5

Quick read, full of sweets, fairytale and nice illustration inside and outside

[Kimberly Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely adore this series. The books are unique, have beautiful messages, wonderful characters, and memorable stories. These are books I'll reread, and share with others.

[Allie Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accidentally picked up the third book to read first but I'm quite in love and will have to read through the first two soon!

[Mimie]

Une jolie trilogie jeunesse ☺️