This was fantastic. I love the overall message of grief and the role it plays in our lives. I love the use of food (including recipes!) and its use for connection. I think this will be in high demand in my middle school library, especially with fans of Raina Telgemeier!

Crumble is a beautiful and colorful graphic novel for MG readers. Emily has a gift.She and her family can bake emotions into the desserts they sell at their bakery. If you need confidence, you got it! Need some relief, you're in luck! The only rule is you cannot bake with negative emotions... but Emily is struggling with the death of her aunt and baking is what she needs to feel better. Emily breaks the rules, bakes, and causes quite a few problems because of it! An emotional book about dealing with the tough feelings that come along with grief, the power of friendship, and the importance of family.

I received an electronic ARC from Algonquin Young Readers through NetGalley.
An interesting premise - bake feelings into desserts. Emily's family has this magical talent. Her aunt runs the bakery while her mom travels and teaches about this. Emily is allowed to bake and experiment and with the exception of one dessert produces treats that meet emotional needs. Her best friend Dae is her number one cheerleader and taste tester. Sadly, tragedy strikes and her aunt is killed in an accident. Readers walk with Emily through the initial grief, funeral and wake and easily see the tremendous feelings bubbling inside her. This grief and sadness continues until Emily decides to break a rule and bake bad feelings into a dessert. This makes her feel better but makes everyone who eats it ill. Readers get a look at how hiding emotions only prolongs the feelings. She tries several times to talk with her mom who is caught in her own grief storm. Finally, Emily confesses what she did and her mom helps her find a solution to help everyone feel better. She mends her relationship with Dae and gets help to cope with the pain.
Tenderly written by McClaren. Readers will connect with the strong emotions and the desperate need to put them somewhere so they go away. They will also understand family dynamics when everyone is caught in strong emotions and not able to share with each other. She still manages to keep the story in the lighter affirming area of literature. The artwork is colorful and brings out the magic.

I love books about baking and especially love that this one delves into the sadder emotions as the baker learns to navigate a recent death of a beloved aunt and her parent’s grief too. Love the genderfluid diversity and representation of diverse families. Wrapped up a little quickly and simply for me, but still a satisfying quick read.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a40dd56c-92de-45ba-8712-a559728cdb5c

With very cutesy illustrations and recipes included, Crumble starts very happy and fun, with a great premise of literally making people feel better with baked goods. But the unexpected death of Emily’s aunt hits very hard and we see both Emily and her mom working through their grief, and can see the struggle. Also because of their power’s stipulation to not bake when feeling bad, Emily feels a double loss of the person helping to raise her and her favorite activity. Using food as a symbol of their grief it can be easier for a younger audience to understand and to help empathize how grief can affect others. A cute but sad middle grade graphic novel, fans of ‘Sheets’ by Thummler and ‘Ghosts’ by Telgemeier will likely be drawn to this as well..

This is a seasonally appropriate book. Our main character has just a little bit of baking magic. She can bake her feelings and make her treats share those feelings with others. Her aunt is a master at this, but this book takes a sharp turn when the Aunt passes away unexpectedly. Back to our main character who has to find a new normal as she learns why you don’t bake when you’re feeling bad. This book is sad but still lovely. It’s a realistic look at a child’s grief after losing someone they’re close to. The illustrations are fun and bubbly and help out the sadness within its pages.

Crumble is another sweet graphic novel where food magic is at the center of the plot.

This graphic novel is targeted at Ages 8-12 and deals with family death and grief, though in a thoughtful way for those ages.

Emily is a middle/late elementary school student with a special power, along with her Aunt Gina and her mom, Emily can bake emotions into food, sweet foods specifically.

Emily stays with her aunt Gina, who runs a bakery, she takes care of Emily and teaches her about the family business while her mom travels to promote the store.

Emily is excited to learn to bake, however when something happens to her aunt.

Emily is left without the ability to bake anything, because of the rule her family has. They don’t bake when they have negative feels because it transfers into the food making people feel bad.

Emily though tries to bake anyway, as it is the only thing that seems to help with her sadness which she’s trying to keep from her mother.

However after a bake sale gone wrong, Emily must deal with the emotions she trying to avoid and repair the relationships she hurt while grieving.

I loved the art style, and I also liked the recipes included. I just think this is a nice touch from books to their readers.

Emily’s story is a pretty serious one. But it is handled with a deft hand, and incorporates the magic in an interesting way.

Overall this was a four star book, very interesting, well plotted and great art. But not one of my favorites.

Crumble by Meredith McClaren is an absolute gem! The story is both quirky and heartfelt, exploring themes of friendship and self-acceptance through the lens of baking and food. I loved the unique art style and how it perfectly complements the narrative, making every page a treat to look at. This book left me feeling inspired and hungry for more—definitely a must-read!

An interesting graphic novel about a family’s ability to bake certain feelings for customers’ needs such as contentment and confidence. As the story continues with Emily helping out at the family bakery with Aunt Gina taking care of her full time while her mom is abroad being the spokesperson for their craft, Aunt Gina’s sudden death in a car accident became a huge impact on Emily and her mom’s lives. With no good/positive feelings, Emily is not able to bake desserts for the bakery due to her mourning. Feeling the need to go on with the baking and try to live her normal life again even though she knew that she was not allowed to bake with bad feelings, she ended up making her classmates very sick. Eventually, she tries to reconcile with her peers by cooking nourishing foods to help with their recovery.

I find this book really thoughtful because this book doesn’t reassure the readers that things will be normal again. That death is something one has to go through and may not be something that is accepted right away or even at all. Sometimes people mourn for the rest of their lives; it’s just they have to live with this emptiness in their hearts. Life continues on, but that doesn’t mean you need to let them go. There’s always times you can revisit memories you shared with them, and that’s ok.

I also found it so wonderfully worded about what these bad feelings are. “Bad feelings are tricky. Baking good feelings makes people feel good. Baking bad feelings make people— Makes them want more. Makes it so they don’t know why. Makes it so they can’t stop even when it makes them feel terrible (Page 179 ebook).” I remember an episode in Bluey where Bingo was in a bad mood and even though she wasn’t in a bad mood anymore, she still remained in a bad mood and didn’t know why. I relate to this a lot especially when I am in a limbo of these negative emotions; I would play memories in my head of times when I was super depressed and just dwell in this until I fell asleep exhausted from these emotions. It is a weird thing to do, but somehow it brings comfort that I can still feel something, like I still have enough care in my heart to feel something in my life.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy for review!

I love the diverse cast of characters, and my son loved the storyline of baking feelings into baked goods. I also appreciated the included recipes - really want to try those. It was also a good opportunity to talk about death of loved ones, and overall it was a sweet story.

Emily has the special ability to back emotions into desserts. Together with her mom and her aunt Gina, the run a bakery where visitors can buy a treat to bring confidence, excitement, or even relief. However, baking bad feelings can bring about bad results. When Aunt Gina dies in an accident Emily struggles to process her feelings of grief and pain, so she tries the one thing that can give her relief: baking. But baking (and eating) bad emotions doesn’t make them go away, so she’ll have to learn how to depend on her friends and family to deal with difficult emotions.
I absolutely loved this unique take on navigating grief and loss. Crumble brings in the joy and fantasy of magical baking while dealing with a tricky, real-world topic. It finds a balance of sweet and silly with heart-felt struggles that is relatable and authentic.

Thank you so much for the E-Arc!

Crumble follows Emily, her mum, and her aunt Gina who all have the ability to bake feelings into the desserts they sell at their bakery. When Gina tragically passes away Emily’s word crumbles. In an attempt to deal with her grief, Emily breaks the rules and bakes her bad feelings into a crumble. Her classmates say it tastes gross. But they can’t stop eating it. And with her grief and pain baked into the crumble, Emily finds comfort in that fleeting numbness. So even though she knows she shouldn’t, she makes it again, and again, and again.

Crumble is a beautiful and heartfelt representation of grief and the change that follows in a way that is approachable for younger readers without shying away from the more unsavoury moments of grief.

I absolutely loved the different family dynamic that was showcased in Crumble. Emily lives with her Aunt Gina while her mum travels for work. There are so many children now in all types of families so it’s wonderful to see families that aren’t just a Mum and a Dad in books. In addition to Emily’s family, there’s also her best friend Dae who has two Dads, and Dae also uses they/them pronouns which is included in a very casual and easy-to-understand way for young readers.

One aspect I found adorable was all the recipes being included, so readers can follow along and bake their own feelings into yummy desserts!

All in all this book was gorgeous and I can’t wait to add it to our library’s collection!

This is a graphic novel about grief, and how to cope with grief. It tells the story of a girl whose aunt dies. The girl and her mom are grieving, and need ways to cope. It shows different ideas and thought processes. It's a good book on feeling grief. The illustrations are very nice, except I had a hard time telling Emily and her mom apart. Thanks Netgalley and Algonquin Young Readers for the opportunity to read this one.

Crumble is another graphic novel that will fly off the shelves. It is a fun story that I know mt students are going to just love.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this gorgeous graphic novel in exchange for an honest review!

Okay, well this made me cry! Despite my last bereavement being 4 years ago, the pain never truly goes away and this middle grade graphic novel tapped straight into those emotions. This is the book I wish I’d read the first time I experienced loss and will be recommending to everyone going forward.

Thank you to Netgalley and Algonquin Young Readers for the ARC of this book.

Crumble is a heartfelt book about grief and dealing with your emotions after losing a loved one. Emily lives with her Aunt and has a sweet routine of school with her friend Dae, baking in her family bakery. Emily's family bakes emotions into the desserts they bake and the book includes recipes for multiple desserts featured in the book.

Emily's routine is disrupted when her Aunt Gina dies unexpectedly and her Mom comes home to take care of her. Emily's mom is dealing with her grief and figuring out how to run the bakery, so Emily feels unsupported in her grief and decides to bake when she's feeling bad. She knows her desserts will taste bad if she bakes while she's feeling bad, but she doesn't know the full truth of what will happen to the people who eat her desserts.

I wish the magic power of baking emotions into dessert was a bit more fleshed out - why does it work only for baking, not cooking? Where is the line there? Is it savoury versus sweet? What if you make a chicken pot pie - does that count as baking or cooking?

I also wish there were more answers for how to find support when dealing with grief. The sentiment of the book seems to be that enough time will help with grief, but what other ways can Emily and her mom deal with their grief?

Emily, her mom, and her aunt Gina have a very special magical power: They can bake emotions into the desserts they sell at their family bakery. 
But when Aunt Gina dies in an accident, Emily’s life is turned upside down. Not knowing what to do, Emily breaks the rule and bakes her bad feelings into. . . a crumble.

What a heartfelt beautiful story of friendship, family, loss, and moving on.
Losing someone you love is never easy,and it never gets better. Emily learns the hard way how grief can make you sick. How trying to bury that pain can make you feel nothing and that feeling can be worse than the pain of loss.

I loved this. It was sad, sweet, and just beautiful.
Highly recommended.

Thanks to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

E ARC Provided by Netgalley

Emily and her Aunt Gina run the family's magical bakery, Om Nom, while Emily's mother travels the world teaching others about what they do. For example, when a friend comes in to the shop after a harrowing test, Emily can determine that she needs a baked goods that makes her feel relieved. She and her aunt have a smoothly running life, and spend a lot of quality time together baking and having fun, seeing the mother at least once a month for a big family dinner. Emily has a soccer playing friend, Dae, who is very exuberant. One thing that Emily can't make is marshmallows, but her aunt comforts her and says that everyone has some issues that don't work out. When the school plans a Boo-Ganza bake sale for Halloween, with the winning homeroom getting a pizza party, Emily and Aunt Gina make bigs plans. Sadly, Aunt Gina dies suddenly in a car accident. Dae's fathers help Emily out until her mother, who is also devastated, makes it home. There's a wake, and Emily feels awful. This awful feeling won't go away, but she goes back to school. Her mother doesn't understand the routine, which makes things worse, since Emily forgets to pick up Dae and bring her lunch. She tells Dae that what she really wants to do is to bake, but her aunt always told her to never bake when she is feeling bad, since the magic will go awry. Sure enough, Emily makes a disastrous crumble, but even though it's horrible, people can't stop eating it. Emily and her mother are still constantly awash in tears, and the mother is having a hard time keeping up with the business. Emily struggles in school, especially when her classmates ask her all kinds of questions about her aunt's death. For the bake sale, Emily makes a crumble that ends up making a lot of people sick, and finally tells her mother what she has been doing. The two make soup, which is not affected by their magic, to take to her classmates by way of apology. Things slowly start to improve, with the mother deciding to open a baking school in the shop, and when a friend's turtle dies, he comes to Emily, and she feels ready to bake something to make him feel better.
Strengths: Om Nom is such a fun concept for a magical bakery, like Littlewood's Bliss, Lloyd's The Key to Extraordinary, LaRocca's Midsummer's Mayhem, or Meriano's Love. Sugar. Magic. series.
Weaknesses: I'm a little confused about what the allegorical meaning behind the crumble is and need to find someone with whom to discuss this. Also, I knew that the aunt was going to die and was prepared, but sensitive young readers who see the aunt's totalled van might not be expecting this level of sadness, since the book starts out so happily.
What I really think: This is a choice of a graphic novel for readers who were able to handle the grief in Santat's The Aquanaut or Thummler's Sheets.

A wonderful graphic novel to add to a school library. A love options that portay the world in a realistic way and Crumble does a great job at handling big themes in an age appropriate way.

This is a really well done middle-grade graphic novel that explores grief realistically amongst light fantasy that’s used to really a hold a mirror up to the struggle that exists in returning to daily life. The fantasy is minimal, focused mainly on our main character who is able to bake food that influences how a person is feeling, but does imply other characters also have powers or abilities beyond the real world. The recipe inclusions were wonderful and got me excited to try them. I loved the focus on friendship and family and trying to support each other despite struggling yourself. The artwork was also really cute and felt cozy despite the difficult topic. Also, we got significant nonbinary rep in the form of a major supporting character! I’d definitely recommend this title to others.