By Jamie Smart, and coloured by Emily Kimbell (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-345-5 (PB)
Laced with cheerful welcoming charm by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart, Max & Chaffy books for younger readers (five when this one comes out and augmented online by www.findchaffy.com) hark back to more traditional times and fare. Initially introduced in Welcome to Animal Island, little Max moved to a new home in a lighthouse and made many amazing friends like Orlando, Crumbs, Moose, Pedalo and especially a strange little creature called Chaffy.
The tiny fluffbundle has mismatched ears and was easily confused: constantly getting lost and needing Max and the reader’s help to be where it belongs. The reason for getting misplaced so much was and is a desire to locate other unique-unto-themselves Chaffys (as seen in follow-up fables The Great Cupcake Mystery!, Search for the Ice Chaffy! and Hunt for the Pirate’s Gold!): a desire magnified once the soon-to-be-inseparable pair joined the Official Chaffy Finding Club…
Unlike Smart’s multi award-winning comics offerings (Bunny vs. Monkey, Looshkin – the Adventures of the Maddest Cat in the World!!, Fish Head Steve!, Corporate Skull, Space Raoul, and many brilliant strips for The Beano, Dandy and others) or his illustrated kids novels like the Flember quartet, Max & Chaffy adventures are crafted for early readers, offering strong directed stories laced with interactive pages, with participation an integral part of the storytelling. The most engaging of these page games are recurring Search & Find tableaux – just like Where’s Wally? – cunningly combined with grouping/collecting moments as they search for new specimens of Chaffy, all offering flavours of Pokémon and echoes of Mr. Men whenever they find and befriend one.
Joyous, inclusive, accepting and particularly appetising, this outing sees our tiny tot stars initially doing something other than seeking new Chaffys – all with a list of identifying characteristics – a bit later, but opens with them soundly asleep in the Lighthouse… until a colossal explosion wakes them up in a hurry!
The detonation is at the bakery where Crumbles’ lives; caused by her latest recipe going awfully wrong. In fact, all the Chaffy’s efforts at cooking are misfiring, and have never really been right ever since she left baking school. Crumbles also really misses her old baking partner Sprinkles…
Max sincerely wants to help and is even more determined once he learns Sprinkles now lives on another island…
Resolved to reunite the cookery champions, Max asks grumpy Captain Foghorn to ferry them over, and when he reuses gets a lift in Orlando Pig’s new Hot Air Balloon. Scarily, it almost doesn’t make it, but eventually everyone alights safely on ‘Food Island’, eager for fun, tasty treats and possibly new Chaffies for Max’s book. Sadly, as Mayor Chomp Chomp explains, they have arrived in the middle of a culinary crisis. The Grand Food Festival has just begun, but in every specialised region, recipes are going wrong and all the new dishes devised are inedible!
Max naturally offers to investigate as he, Crumbles and Chaffy search for Sprinkles, and soon their trek takes them to ‘Pasta Hills!’ where very upset Pasta Pete explains how nothing has the right texture or taste anymore. This sends Chaffy into a finding frenzy that only ends when he finds an undiscovered Burger Chaffy adrift in the land of spaghettis, cheesy sauces and meatballs…
Gradually the pattern repeats across the island, with our explorers locating never-before-catalogued Chaffy pals in ‘Burger Valley!’, ‘Veggie Park!’, ‘Sushi Land’ and ‘Bakersville’, inspiring brand new taste and flavour combinations before ultimately reuniting and similarly reinvigorating the baking partnership of Sprinkles and Crumbles. Max can’t decide what’s best: wonderful new food or more Chaffies for his book. Actually, of course he can…
The fun is followed by a round of exotic fusion foods for all, and supplemented by more things to do, beginning with a bonus feature where Sprinkles asks readers to search for his misplaced ingredients (with answers kindly provided…)
Exuberant, enticing, eminently palatable and remarkably re-readable, this is another must-have treat of no kid of any age could possibly resist.
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.
Max & Chaffy: What a Delicious Discovery! will be released on August 14th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.