The Café at the Edge of the Woods
Part of the collectionThe Café at the Edge of the Woods→Absurdist, densely illustrated rhyming picture books to be read aloud immediately; a modern award-winning classic and its equally strong sequels.
- Books3
- Arcs1
- Span2022–2026
- StatusOngoing
The series
At a glance.
Mikey Please's absurdist rhyming picture-book series about Rene's café and its most devoted customer, the ogre Glumfoot. Each book runs a simple, gloriously silly engine, an outsized appetite, a very particular menu, a cast of woodland regulars watching in horror, and generates comedy from monstrous manners and revolting-delicious food. Please writes verse that manages the rare trick of being funny, perfectly paced and genuinely surprising on every page, and illustrates with the density of animation stills: richly coloured spreads packed with visual jokes that reward a second and third read. The first book won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and was named Waterstones Book of the Year. These are picture books with a low reluctant-reader rating not because they are hard but because the verse and detail are made to be pored over aloud.
Absurdist, densely illustrated rhyming picture books to be read aloud immediately; a modern award-winning classic and its equally strong sequels.
Primary themes
Overall tone
- Funny
- Whimsical
- Irreverent
- Silly
The Café at the Edge of the Woods comes first and introduces Rene and Glumfoot; The Cave Downwind of the Café and The Thieves Beneath the Floorboards follow and read best in order, but each stands alone.
One arc
The shape of the series.
- IStandalone collection arcLow sensitivity
Rene and Glumfoot at the café
Three standalone absurdist rhyming picture books set around Rene's café and her ogre friend Glumfoot.
Three picture books sharing a café, a cast and a comic register rather than a continuing plot. The first sets the template, a hungry ogre, an impossible menu and a café owner whose composure never cracks, and won the Waterstones Book of the Year. The second follows Glumfoot home to his cave downwind of everything pleasant, expanding the visual world and deepening the friendship. The third turns the café's own floorboards into the joke, with uninvited little thieves helping themselves to dinner until Glumfoot and the littlest bear dream up a warmer solution than pest control. Each stands alone; together they build one of the funniest, most re-readable picture-book worlds in print, absurd, a little disgusting, and quietly kind underneath.
Fit check
Right for your reader?
Where the series lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- 15
- 17
- 19
- Best fit · 3–7
- Read aloud · 3–8
- Independent · 5–8
Reluctant-reader friendliness
Workable
Read-aloud quality
Excellent
Adult crossover
High
Grows with the reader
Designed to
Sensitivity envelope
Low overall, and consistent.
In the same universe
Sister series.
Where it sits
In conversation with other series.
About the author