Poppy Pendle. 01 : The power of Poppy Pendle /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"There is a strong essence of Roald Dahl to this story...a crowd-pleaser." -- Library Media Connection
"[A] sweet story about true friendship." -- School Library Journal

Poppy has magical powers, but she would rather be a baker. Can she find a way to follow her own path? This charming novel includes more than a dozen delectable recipes!

Ten-year-old Poppy, born to ordinary parents, has inherited coveted witch power. In Poppy's world, witches work for good and are much valued, but Poppy does not want to be a witch--she wants to be a baker, and she is extremely good at baking. Her parents insist Poppy follow in the footsteps of her great aunt, a famous witch, but Poppy has plans of her own.

Part magic, part adventure, and wholly delicious, this spirited story includes more than a dozen recipes you can try at home.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Lowe's energetic first novel is led by 10-year-old Poppy, who was born in the Patisserie Marie Claire bakery in the town of Potts Bottom. While Poppy has inherited the gift of magic from her highly respected Great-Granny Mabel, she wants nothing to do with it. Baking makes Poppy happy, and after three years at Ruthersfield, a magic school her parents force her to attend, she is fed up. Poppy runs away to the Patisserie, where sympathetic Marie Claire takes her in, but when Poppy's parents drag her home, she snaps and turns them to stone with the "Stop It Now Spell." It's up to Marie Claire and Poppy's friend Charlie to bring Poppy back from the "dark side." Lowe makes the story's arc (and message) clear early on: the Ruthersfield motto translates to "Follow your passion," and Poppy's interest in another witch who crossed to the dark side presages her own transformation. Readers will easily empathize with Poppy and recognize the loneliness and anger that accompany being misunderstood. Several recipes for Poppy's desserts are included. Ages 8-12. Agent: Ann Tobias, A Literary Agency for Children's Books. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-6-To her parents' great mortification, Poppy is unexpectedly born in a French bakery; she couldn't possibly have had a less auspicious birth. As she grows, though, it becomes obvious that she has the rare gift of magic, and her parents couldn't be more pleased. They purchase a state-of-the-art wand and broom and enter her in the Ruthersfield Academy for Witches. While Poppy is an excellent witch, all she really wants to do is bake. When she announces to her parents that she hates magic and just wants to make treats, her parents go to the extreme to stop her, pushing her into the blackest of magic. In this sweet story about true friendship, Poppy is a likable main character. While the accompanying cast is a little flat and an evil-witch story line seems to be dropped altogether, children will like dark-side Poppy and the satisfying ending. Several recipes are included. Recommended this one to fans of Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch (Viking, 1989).-Terry Ann Lawler, Phoenix Public Library, AZ (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

As we all know from best-selling series, you can't buy magical powers you either have them or you don't. Poppy Pendle's parents are overjoyed when, as a baby, she creates sweets out of thin air; they want to enroll her right away in the witch academy. It soon develops, though, that Poppy's passion is for baking, not spells, perhaps due to the fact that she was born in the town patisserie. Lowe's diverting first novel follows the sympathetic Poppy as she tries to convince her parents not to force her to become a witch and secretly befriends a nonwitch neighbor and the patisserie's owner. But when her parents remove the oven from their house well, then they've gone too far. Lowe presents Poppy's turn to the dark side (she transforms her parents and other creatures in her path into stone and starts consuming junk food) as both understandable and disturbing. But of course friendship and good food win out in the end. Thirteen recipes of the story's scrumptious-sounding desserts are included.--Nolan, Abby Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Can 10-year-old Poppy convince her parents she wants to be a baker and not a witch in yet another fantasy that blends magic and baking? Poppy Pendle has inherited her magic from her Great-Granny Mabel, but her passion is baking. Her Dursley-like parents send her to the Ruthersfield Academy for young ladies with magic. She excels there, but she hates flying on her broomstick, using her wand and the teasing of the other girls. She runs away to the only place where she is happy, Patisserie Marie Claire, where she can create her own cookies and cakes. When this solution does not pan out, Poppy turns to the dark side of being a witch, hiding in a forsaken cottage and turning animals, her parents, police, birds and squirrels to stone. Her friend Charlie (a girl) and Marie Claire try various "sweet-tempting" plans to bring her back and finally succeed. Poppy and Marie Claire rehab the cottage and open a bakery. Numerous unexplained gaps in the fantasy logic crinkle the storyline, beginning with the "magic" of Poppy's being born in the Patisserie (thus her passion) and ending with her turned-to-stone parents taking two years to thaw. The belabored parental conflict, sugarcoated emotions and convenient plot details are cloying. The 12 recipes at the end are the best part; the rest is just half-baked. (Fantasy. 8-11)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Natasha Lowe knew as a child that she wanted to be either a writer, an adventurer, or to open a fancy teashop. So she did a little bit of everything, traveling from her native London to America where she ran The Tea House bed and breakfast and wowed guests with her grandmother's shortbread recipe. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and four children. She is the author of the Poppy Pendle series and Lucy Castor Finds Her Sparkle .