posted on 18 Aug 2016

Fortune Cookie by Cathy Cassidy

This is the last in the ' Chocolate Box' series of books by this highly acclaimed award winning author and had these been available when I was aged between ten and thirteen, I would have been so happy. I have tried, with some difficulty, to imagine myself as a reader of that age in order to write this review.

The eponymous Cookie is the affectionate nickname given to Jake, a fourteen year old boy. He has never known his own father and his mother has finally left his unpleasant and violent stepfather to start a new life in London with Cookie and his two younger half- sisters. As soon as they arrive they go for a meal in a Chinese restaurant which is severely understaffed, his mum steps up to help and is offered a job as a waitress with accommodation in a small flat over the shop by the very grateful owner. For a while, they all muddle along precariously with very little cash and some babysitting help from granny who lives nearby.

Feeling in something of a rut, Cookie seems disgruntled and restless, including not doing that well at school, when he receives an intriguing letter from someone called Honey who tells him that she is one of his half- sisters. Apparently she has discovered his existence when staying with their mutual father, now estranged from his first wife and four daughters, when staying with him where he now lives in Australia (do keep up)! If I had followed the earlier books in the series I would have realised that this is Cassidy's clever way of introducing an interesting new male character into the familiar and well loved ' Chocolate Box' family.

Two more letters follow imploring Cookie to get in touch which he ignores until an unfortunate episode involving his responsibility for an overflowing bath and collapsed ceiling provides the impetus for action. His decision to run away to find a way to contact his long lost father and to ask him for financial help is made particularly urgent because his mum is threatening to uproot them all to go to live with her new boyfriend, Sheddie. This character is predictably loathed by Cookie, although he has never met him, and I like the way he imagines him as a cartoon like new age hippie. All the stereotypes abound as Cookie builds him up in his imagination as a despicable, lazy character who is not to be trusted. 

Using his mum's lipstick to scrawl an apology to their landlord about the flood, he escapes to Devon with a train ticket sent by Honey. He doesn't intend to be gone for too long but the impending visit of Sheddie to stay in the flat means that he can pretend to lie low at a friend’s for a while, as his mum knows that he isn't keen to meet him. Honey hasn't told anyone else in the family about Cookie's existence and her letters, so when he eventually turns up and reveals his identity it is quite a shock. Fortunately, as tends to be the way in fiction, he is welcomed warmly as a guest and offered a temporary bed in a gypsy style caravan in the garden where he soon makes himself comfortable.

This is very much a plot driven story so I don't want to give too much away, suffice to say that Cookie's plans to contact his father in Australia prove to be much more difficult than he hoped. In the meantime he gets to know his other half- sisters Summer, Skye and Coco, their step sister Cherry and their various friends. All these people have had their own stories written about them before and I can imagine that there is a strong feeling of quasi family affection and loyalty that must run deep with Cassidy fans. They have clearly all experienced some troubles along the way but now appear to be a proper storybook family that reminded me of the ' Little House on the Prairie' and ' Little Women' in terms of cosiness. Add in the fact that they run a successful home chocolate making business and are in the middle of planning their annual chocolate festival and there is even more appealing magic a la ' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' world. But perhaps I am seeing these connections as an experienced adult reader? Actually it doesn't matter because I would imagine that all of the stories about such engaging characters stand alone. 

Everything is eventually resolved and there is a pretty happy ending for everyone concerned, even the much maligned Sheddie. I might wait a while before reading another one in the series but, I would have absolutely loved these books when younger and I would certainly recommend them to readers in that age range. 

 

Karen Argent

August 2016