Book Review | Adventures With Waffles

Adventures With Waffles by Maria Parr

My first introduction to Adventures With Waffles by Maria Parr was a few years ago when my mom read the book aloud to the whole family. Every single member of the family loved it. From my dad all the way down to the toddler at the time and everyone in between. It was just one of those great books that keeps everyone engaged. What’s going to happen next? Are they going to be okay? Can you read just one more chapter? Why does it have to be over already?

Those are just a few of the questions pouring from everyone while reading this book.

I recently read it again, this time on my own, and I found that it was just as enjoyable as it had been the first time. Before I go on about what I loved about and so on, let me formally introduce you to the book, in case you haven’t already met.

A Short Summary of Adventures With Waffles

Vafflehjarte or Adventures With Waffles by Maria Parr is a wonderful story that was originally written in Norwegian. Back in 2013 Vafflehjarte was translated into English by Guy Puzey under the title Waffle Hearts and later Adventures With Waffles

Adventures With Waffles is written from a first-person point of view. The story is being told by a young boy named Theobald Rodrik Danielsen Yttergård or Trille as everyone calls him. He lives in Mathildewick Cove in Norway with his Father, Mother, his siblings Minda, Magnus, and Krølle and his grandfather. 

Through the hedge by their house, lives a young girl named Lena. 

Trille knows for certain that Lena is his best friend, but what bothers him is that he doesn’t know for certain that he is Lena’s best friend.

Best friends or not, Lena and Trille spend all of their free time together having adventures, getting into scrapes, drinking coffee with Trille’s grandfather, and eating Auntie Granny’s famously delicious waffle hearts. 

To them, life is perfect. Sure they have occasional arguments, run into danger frequently, and Lena has quite a bad temper. Despite all of that though, Trille and Lena are content with life. Until that is, when life isn’t perfect anymore and everything seems to go wrong. 

For Trille, losing Auntie Granny was bad enough. It was very devastating in fact, but to make matters worse, he discovers a terrible secret that Lena has kept from him. 

Trille finds himself wondering how life could ever be right again. How he can ever be happy again, or at the very least not be sad all the time anymore. 

My Thoughts About Adventures With Waffles

Adventures With Waffles is a heartwarming story about childhood. It beautifully combines humor and seriousness, happiness and sorrow. 

It is true that no childhood is free from hardship and grief, however filled it is with happy memories. Adventures With Waffles depicted this combination in a unique and enchanting way.

It is one of those stories, much like Anne of Green Gables, that presents childhood the way it most commonly is. There is bound to be hardship and grief in life, it is how you deal with those emotions, what you do with your time that counts.

 Adventures With Waffles is bound to be a classic. If you have not yet read this book with your children, then I highly recommend you do. It is suitable and enjoyable for both boys and girls, young and old. 

Thank you for reading this review. If you enjoyed reading it, then please consider sharing and checking out our other book reviews. If you have a book you would like me to review for you, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will be in touch with you. 

If you have already read Adventures With Waffles with you kids, please comment below to let me know what you thought of it. 

Happy Reading & Writing!