Thank you for the advanced copy of Crumble! This was such a cute middle grade graphic novel that covers death, grief, relationships, and other feelings. The artwork was beautiful and really helped give the story the whole picture for the readers. As a daughter and mother myself, I could fully feel the feelings of both characters in this book. The story was very moving and the way they talked about it and went about the grief and healing process after a death was wonderful. This was a quick and easy read! Also who doesn’t love a bakery and baked goods, along with some other food! Thank you again for the advanced copy!

What if you could really eat your emotions? In this story, certain backers can use magic to literally make desserts with emotions in them. The story follows a young girl who is happy making sweets with her Aunt. Then, after someone happens, her whole world changes.

Such a fun book—a bit sad but such a memorable read that I read in one sitting. I love the colour of this book and the illustrations. It's exactly what I look for in any middle grade graphic novel book. I highly recommend you to pick it up!

I would like to thank the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this eBook.

Crumble by Meredith McClaren is a coming-of-age graphic novel with some fantasy elements about dealing with the death of a loved one and the grief that follows. The artwork is adorable and colorful.

Thank you Net Galley for approving me to read this book. I absolutely loved this cute graphic novel! The characters were well fleshed out, the pacing was great, and the story was very moving. I liked how the mom and daughter did not immediately get over their grief and instead the daughter relied on her friends and her baking to get through it, and then eventually rely on her mom. The mom was by far my least favorite character but maybe that’s because her isolation and impact on her daughter’s ability to deal with grief felt very realistic. I also liked how the daughters best friend had two dads, go queer inclusion! I really like that this graphic novel was able to handle topics of grief, queer families, death, and the relationship between parents and their children very well.

Read this ARC with thanks to netgalley. This is due to be published on 25/02/2025.

I quite regularly read children's books to my 3 year old nephew but this is aimed at older children. I'm a bit out of touch with children's literature and as a family we tend to stick to the books we loved as kids. However, it was nice to pick up something new.

This explores a range of themes sensitively for children and in a way they would be able to understand. Illustrations are great and I love the recipes added in along the way.

This is so freaking cute. The artwork is so precious and colorful. This is a story that really dives into the struggles of processing grief and emotion, both as an adult and a child, but also how healing it can be to have a strong support system of family and friends around you. This is just filled with adorable friendships and even made me tear up a little bit but it was truly a lovely little read.

Emily and her aunt, Gina, as well as Emily’s mother, have a very interesting power: they can bake feelings in the form of desserts! They have a small bakery and everyday after school, Emily and her best friend, Dae, bake various delicious recipes, while her and her aunt brainstorm new ones. But suddenly, aunt Gina dies in an accident and Emily doesn’t really know how to manage her feelings, and ultimately breaks a very important rule: to not bake when you’re feeling any negative emotion. She bakes her bad feelings in a crumble that tastes very bad, but Emily and Dae can’t seem to stop eating it… and neither can Emily’s classmates. Even though baking this crumble makes Emily at least a little numb to the grief she’s experiencing, baking bad feelings doesn’t really make them go away…


This book was so easy to read and very entertaining! The illustrations are just amazing and the colors blend together so well. Grief is very well portrayed in this, it really resonates with me a lot. Emily is the type of book character you just get attached to, and want to see more of. Her friendship with Dae is just heartwarming, her being an energic person, just blends so well with Emily’s shyness!

I love the fact that it shows the actual recipes for the desserts they’re baking throughout the book! Such a nice detail, will for sure try them out myself haha!

Overall, a very nice and easy read, a little emotional as well, I especially reccomend it to people who experienced grief. It portrays it so well, you can’t help but get attached to the characters and all the emotions they’re feeling.

Huge kudos to the artist as well, love the illustrations so much!

Thank you for giving me a chance to read your story!

I get a kick out of reading graphic novels but this one just seemed to off the mark for me. It didn't engage me in any way.

The illustration in this one is nice and consistent for books in series that would be targeted to the same demographic and age group; and the story is well done. The magic element is a bit confusing though, probably because it needs to be fleshed out more than the story format allows. I guess I was just trying to figure out the origin of the powers and how these link into society are there other magic wielders, are there magic wielders who can do this for cooking and not baking?

I do think that it's important for parents who get this book for a middle schooler or upper elementary reader to note that there is the death of a loved one which happens quite suddenly, and which leads Emily down a path of depression that she has to learn how to come out of. The hardest part for me to understand with this book is how her mother could be so absent from her life and still act like she loves her. I mean, I know that there are parents who do need or want to put work before their kids, but I can't see how her leaving her daughter with her aunt full time is really the best tactic. I got the impression that the balance wasn't there and that Emily's mom was away more often than she was present, which made the loss of her main parent even more shocking. Then, to have her mom show up and basically ignore her wasn't a great experience either. Sorry may be a spoiler.

I was definitely sad for her and for her loss. I was angry at her mother for being so selfish. And I guess that's the sign of a good graphic novel: you can get enough character development to truly feel for the characters when they experience highs and lows.

I will close with the caveat that, while the back story of the magic was not really sufficient for me, the actual baking magic and difference between happy and sad baking was fleshed out enough. I do still want to understand why only certain emotions make it into the baking, but again, back story.

All in all, a good graphic novel for the middle schooler set that deals with loss and growing up through sadness.

Review to come early Feb 2025 on blog/other places.

I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

One of the books I really really wanted to read and I am happy I got it thanks to Netgalley in mid-2024. WHOO! 

In this book we have baking, grief/mourning, friendship, and much more. I couldn't stop reading this one when I started and I just flew right through it. Oh, and I love how the title is fitting with the baking and the loss! 

The grief/mourning part of the book was well-written. Especially since they can't just bake it away (because again bad feelings make for bad bakes), they really have to get through this tunnel of darkness and find the light again. They have to live with the loss and discover new ways to be happy again. I especially felt for Emily, our MC. 

Emily's best friend, Dae, was such a fun character and I love how despite everything they stuck with Emily. Even when things went all wrong. 

The art in this one was just so fun and pretty, I love the style. The artist really was able to catch both the sadder moments and the happier ones. 

OH, and I gotta mention, there are some recipes as well! Definitely curious to try them out, at least ones in the beginning and at the end, because there are 1 or 2 recipes that are not well readable because of Emily's emotions at the moment. 

I love the idea of infusing your feelings into your baking and that it actually works. At first I thought it was just placebo, but apparently in this world there are people who can bake their feelings into bakes and that instantly transfers to that person when eating something. I could definitely use some relaxing cookies or maybe some more confidence. Maybe get some cookies for my dad with Alzheimer so he can feel more happy and calm. 

I am also thanking the heavens that I can just bake whenever I want. Haha. Baking for me is often a way to relief stress or bad feelings. I generally bake when I feel down. Can you imagine my bakes if I had that power? Or if I only could bake during happy times? I would probably have given up on baking. XD 

Controversial opinion time. I could understand that mom was having a hard time, but ask for fucking help. Our MC needs someone to support her. To be there for her. To listen to her. To take time for her. To help out. She found no adults that were there for her. So she went for baking. And as she can infuse her feelings into baking.. you may just guess how things went in that regards. Again, I understand that for mom it is also hard. I understand. But ask for help. Get someone in the house to help out with things. To make sure your kid at least has one adult to catch her. 

All in all, this is a wonderful graphic novel about baking, mourning/loss, friendship, and more! I would recommend it to all!

A beautiful illustrated story about grief, the feeling of being sad and how to deal with those feelings.

The description of the story sounded interesting to me and made me want to know how it will deal with such heavy and important topics.

The whole story felt more like a story about learning more about the own feelings and how to deal with them, than a story about death. The way the author and the illustrated described and designed the whole story made it feel more lividly.

Where was this when I was growing up! I needed this exact book as kid. I definitely will recommend this, especially in the way it takes about overwhelming feelings like grief and sadness. The art was super sweet too. Complements the dessert theme.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early read of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! It was so good, the characters had enough depth, the story moved so quickly and kept me interested and intrigued the whole time. The illustrations were so well done and made the book exactly what it is. I also enjoyed the whole concept of Emily baking her feelings and how bad feelings should not be baked, it was a great concept that I’ve never read before and it was wonderfully executed!

Crumble was such a cute middle grade story. The illustrations were beautiful and cute.
This story is every emotional, which I love to see in middle grade because even at that age you sometimes have to deal with grief.
This follows a young girl that bakes feelings in all types of sweets with her aunt with magic which is a cool concept.
Bonus there's lots of recipes throughout the book too.

Crumble by Meredith McClaren

“Crumble” is a heartfelt story full of emotion, and many of them! Emily, her mom, and aunt Gina have the incredible ability to bake emotions into the desserts at their bakery. They only bake the positive emotions, but friends and patrons come to them for confidence, stress relief, acceptance, and more..Emily and her friend Dae have a joyous rapport matched only by the vibrant and enticing illustrations throughout. As strong and clear as Emily’s voice is at the beginning, when the plot takes a turn, so does Emily’s voice and baking. What happens when Emily tries baking filled with the presence of non-positive emotions? “Crumble” holds space for Emily in form and so much more. Such an accessible and tangible story demonstrating the complicated and non-linear journey that is grief from multiple points of view. “Crumble” is a delight from start to finish, and if you try one of the recipes included throughout, might be just as delicious long after you finish it!

I think this one is just intended for a younger audience than me and the graphic novels I’m usually most drawn to (Sheets, Beetle and the Hollowbones, etc). The art style wasn’t for me and while the story itself tried to achieve a lot of depth, it didn’t ever really move me.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

Crumble was a 8.5/10book for me. I
liked the style of art and depiction of emotion through baking. And the difference between cooking. I like that baking holds emotions, while cooking releases them. It also shows a great perspective of struggle of parenting while grieving, and the big changes that losing someone puts on your life. The fact that she can put all her feelings into the crumble but not realize how sick it makes others, makes a great metaphor of how when were grieving, we tend to not realize the other people we are effecting. And the communication from mom to daughter about grief and needing to talk about it together was the cherry on the top.

This is the story of Emily, who, along with her aunt Gina and her mom have a magic power that allows them to bake feelings into food. They can only bake feelings. They can’t make them from other things they cook. And people come to their bakery to get a taste of feelings they want.

When Aunt Gina dies, Emily wants to keep baking, but no one wants to eat sadness, and that is all she has inside her. But she keeps trying to bake the sadness out, hoping that someday soon, she will be happy again.

Her mother doesn’t know she is doing this, and the problem with eating sadness is it makes you sick.

It is a good story to explain how grief makes you feel, and how you don’t have to “get over it” on some schedule. I liked how she worked through her feelings, and also the stupid things people said to her after the funeral, because kids will say those things.

Not a fun story, by any means, but sometimes books are good to read to feel things, and this one definitely does that.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out Feb 25, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was adorable. The graphics were so cute. The story was really engaging and enjoyable to young kids. My daughter flew through this book because she loved it so much. The story was great and this will be a great read for young readers.