- Comedy
- Café Chaos collection
- Ages 9–12
Café Chaos
Part of the collectionCafé Chaos→Easy, feel-good family comedy for readers moving into secondary school — broad farce with real feeling underneath, illustrated throughout by Katie Abey.
- Books2
- Arcs1
- Span2025–2026
- StatusOngoing
The series
At a glance.
Catherine Wilkins's Café Chaos follows Hope Crumble, a girl starting secondary school while her family run a chaotic café full of over-ordered beans, novelty costumes and outrageous relatives. Each book pairs broad family farce with a genuine emotional thread — money troubles, sibling rivalry, the pressure of school and finding room to simply be a child amid the chaos. The comedy is generous and the register stays warm; nobody is a villain for long, and even Hope's arch-enemy gets a redemptive turn. Illustrated in black and white throughout by Katie Abey, the books are highly readable and reluctant-reader friendly, with short chapters and constant comic energy. An easy, feel-good series for readers at the top of primary and start of secondary.
Easy, feel-good family comedy for readers moving into secondary school — broad farce with real feeling underneath, illustrated throughout by Katie Abey.
Primary themes
Overall tone
- Funny
- Warm
- Heartwarming
- Irreverent
Publication order recommended, though each story stands on its own.
One arc
The shape of the series.
- IStandalone collection arcBooks 1–2 · 2025–2026Low sensitivity
The Crumble family café
Episodic family-café comedies following Hope Crumble and her chaotic relatives.
Each Café Chaos book is a self-contained comic escapade centred on the Crumble family's struggling café and Hope's efforts to be heard within it — a family money crisis in the first, an over-ordered mountain of beans and a charity fashion show in the second. The formula is affectionate farce shot through with recognisable feelings about pressure, rivalry and belonging, so the books read well in any order. Warm, funny and very safe, with short chapters and Katie Abey's black-and-white illustrations throughout, they suit readers at the top of primary and the start of secondary who want an easy, laugh-out-loud read.
Fit check
Right for your reader?
Where the series lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- 15
- 17
- 19
- Best fit · 9–12
- Read aloud · 8–11
- Independent · 9–12
Reluctant-reader friendliness
High
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Adult crossover
Low
Grows with the reader
Not especially
Sensitivity envelope
Low overall, and consistent.
Where it sits
In conversation with other series.
About the author