Sage Cookson's Sweet Escape product reviews

My daughter has just turned 8 and loves books, but isn't always so keen on reading them herself. Therefore it can be a bit of a fine balance to find books that are suitable and not too difficult for her to read if she chooses to, but that are interesting and substantial enough for me to read to her if that's what we end up doing. When I saw this book up for review, I decided it might fit the bill quite well and I'm pleased to report that it has.

Miss 8's eyes lit up at the sight of the book, but she wanted me to read it to her in this instance. However for the purposes of the review, I got her to read a bit to me at times, just to check it was at her level and that it was easily understood by her, and I'm pleased to report that it was right on point. The words weren't too difficult, but the story had some substance behind it that made it an interesting read.

From the blurb, I thought the actual story line might be something that Miss 8 would really enjoy as we enjoy watching cooking shows together on TV. It turns out that the story probably wasn't really along the lines of the shows we watch, but it captured her interest and it had some good giggle moments, and some disaster moments, with some suspense thrown in that kept us reading. And as chocolate is something everyone enjoys, it is a story line that would appeal to a wide range of kids. I love that the chapters are reasonably short - something that I really appreciate with books aimed at this age group as it helps feel like the story is moving along quickly.

A few other things I noted from the story - it opened some discussions up about where chocolate comes from. I don't think we've ever pointed out to Miss 8 that chocolate comes from a cocoa plant - something that came up as we read. It's also fun to talk about all the possibilities that chocolate has when it comes to cooking, so it really was lovely being able to share this book with my daughter.

The best thing is that at the back of the book there is a recipe for chocolate fondant to try. Miss 8 isn't a great dessert fan and we decided the actual recipe wasn't really for us, but it got us talking about other chocolate dishes we could bake together ... something we won't have a chance to try for a while, but it's definitely going to add value to the book as it feels like even though we've finished reading it, it's not really over yet. I'm assuming there are other books in this series, and so we'll certainly be looking out for more of them in the future. I recommend this book for age 6 upwards.

For the past week my seven year old daughter has read me this book. Set in Australia, it tells of the Cookson's family and their travels required for their television show. In this occasion they travel to Western Australia's for a cooking competition where Sage's parents are to be the guest judges. Things do not go according to plan as Marco is under the assumption they are there to steal his Chocolate recipes and so devises a plan to get rid of them.

A fun story that leaves you wanting more. The chapters are nice and short and the writing is very simple. My daughter only required help on a couple of occasions, otherwise she managed to fly thru the story on her own. At first you know something is a little off between Nancy and Marco and it left us both dying to know what was going to happen and why were they so weird, it led to some very funny conversations about what could happen and the reasons behind it.

The biggest highlight for my daughter is at the very back of the book there is a recipe for a 'Cheat's Chocolate Fondant' that serves six and she is dying to try it. I have agreed that during the school holidays we will make it as it seems simple enough - fingers crossed.

The book, although based around Chocolate, does not dig deep enough for my liking and I would of liked to have read more about the chocolate dishes and secrets to making the meals so yummy. It is instead based more on the weird behavour of Marco and Nancy and Sage texting her best friend. Still a really cute story and one my daughter adored. A great, fun book for kids from around six to eight years of age.