Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

October 2025

• ISBN: 9780008639051
• ISBN 10: 0008639051
• Imprint: HarperCollins GB
• RRP: $24.99

I didn’t see the previous book, The Café at the Edge of the Woods, but as it won Waterstones’ Picture Book of the Year it would be obvious that it was a great success. Certainly, this quirky sequel confirms that. Actually, this is a prequel to that one as it details how Glumfoot becomes the waiter at Rene’s cafe with all its delicious offerings.

Glumfoot is pretty fed up with his father’s bogey broth staple diet and the yummy sweet smells emanating from a distance definitely need exploring. But a rather large ogre seems to be far more interested in eating Rene than her pastries and Glumfoot needs to come up with a tactic that will stop the huge (and rather unfortunate looking) creature in its enormous tracks.

Cleverly, he switches tack from describing the cafe’s products as foul-tasting – which appeals to an ogre’s tastebuds – to sweetness and scrumminess. That certainly does the trick!

It’s a fun rhyming journey into the world of gothic and grotesque story telling that Smalls will relish, with the same appetite as a Glumfoot has for Rene’s delicacies. Absolutely a 5 🍰🍩🧁🍮🥧 for readers from Prep upwards. And perfect for a Halloween read!