The Cave Downwind of the Café
‘Each to his own’ could be the motto of this book. Some go a bundle on delicious café food, whilst others salivate at the thought of bogey broth. Glumfoot, the young protagonist, dreams of something tastier than the latter, and when the aroma of pastry from a new café reaches his cave, his only task is to prevent an ogre from eating the proprietor of said establishment before he can enjoy the food there himself. Easier said than done.
This madcap picturebook’s story hops rhyme-fueled from page to page, the amusing, slightly off-kilter and quasi-sepia images are laden with rich detail. The threat of being eaten is of course an age-old trope of children’s literature but the peculiar preferences of the ogre (and his family) are here teased out with aplomb. The more Glumfoot tries to dissuade the ogre from eating humans by comparing it to horrible things, the more the monster is enticed!
Along the way many of the images are a treat; a close up of the ogre shrieking, which could be a homage to Munch or Picasso, a floral curtain that Glumfoot pulls back as he tries to direct the ogre family towards his cave, the sinewy wafts of cooking smells that snake through the pages. The rhyme ultimately propels the story along to a mutually satisfactory conclusion, with Glumfoot sampling culinary delights in René’s café while the ogres chow down with relish on bogey broth – the contents of which is thankfully kept vague!
This book is a tasty, though not quite tasteful, confection.
