Publication Date: 8 June 2023

The Blurb

Bridget Baxter is the very last orphan at the Orphanage for Errant Childs, left at the mercy of the awful Miss Acrid and her foul-smelling fish sandwiches. Miss Acrid’s mission is to make Bridget’s life a misery. But Bridget is more than a match for her.

When kindly Mr Vanderpuff arrives at the Orphanage in search of a child to care for, Bridget thinks her luck has finally turned. Mr Vanderpuff is the village baker, and his shop is a world of wonders. But they soon discover that Bridget is absolutely terrible at baking. When Miss Acrid returns for the ultimate revenge, Bridget must open the Locked and Secret Door, navigate Miss Acrid’s spiderweb of booby traps and use her unique baking skills to save herself – and Mr Vanderpuff – from certain disaster.

Join Bridget as she dons her chef whites and gets the kwassongs at the ready… Baking isn’t such a piece of cake.

The Review

Love and hope triumph over misery in this riotously funny, laugh-out-loud, hug of a book.

Bridget is kind, caring and inventive, and proves her mettle time and time again against her adversary – Miss Acrid – who is the best kind of fictional villain; completely and utterly determined to make Bridget’s life a misery, even if she makes her own just as miserable in the process.

There is a special kind of everyday magic in Mr Vanderpuff’s bakery fuelled by love and friendship. Bridget arrives ready to find a home and throws herself into bakery life (once she gets out of her sentient covers in her room of bed). Between Mr Vanderpuff and Pascal the bakery elf, Bridget gets all the encouragement she needs to persevere with baking, which seems to be the first thing she has not been instantly able to do.

Loss and grief are sieved into the mixing bowl of this tale, and folded in gently amid the liberal sprinkles of inventiveness, determination, adopted family and love. Oh to spend a day behind the counter of Mr Vanderpuff’s Bakery and have my own bakery box ribbon to untie to see at what delicacy lies within.

With larger than life characters, ingenious inventions, and imaginative bakes that would leave the Bake Off Tent in awe, David Habben’s warm, witty illustrations help bring Bridget’s tale to life, including her hair which deserves to be a character in its own right, packed full as it is with vital equipment for any escapade.

This is the kind of story telling that leaves you with a glow in your heart, and I cannot wait to catch up with Bridget and Mr Vanderpuff in her next adventure, Bridget Vanderpuff And The Ghost Train which publishes at the end of August!

Oh, and you can pop on your chef’s whites (or an apron) and get baking with your family with a fabulous Vanderpuff recipe at the end of book.

Great for fans of:

• The Orphans Of St Halibuts by Sophie Wills and David Tazzyman
• The Magician’s Daughter by Caryl Lewis

Huge thanks to Zepher Books for sending me a copy, and to Courtney for inviting me to take part in the blog tour. Do make sure you check out all of the other stops.