Very Rich by Polly Horvath

Please take this warning very seriously - do not read this book if you are hungry. You have probably heard of unrequited love? Well this book is full of unrequited meals! I had to stop reading around page 225 and make myself a delicious lunch because, like the hero of the story Rupert, I was starving. 

Starving - not really - but Rupert is starving. His family are poor, dirt poor. Rupert is lucky to eat one paltry meal each day. Mrs Brown can only serve the large family oatmeal flavoured with kitchen scraps scrounged from bins around their small town. Rupert is thin and very cold. He has no coat, worn out sandshoes and he is forced to wear his three shirts as he trudges to and from school. The writing in this book is so good that I felt cold (even though the day here was sunny and warm).

As the story opens, Rupert sets off for school. The streets are oddly quiet and after his long cold journey he discovers the school is closed. On the way home his jacket is caught on the swinging gates of a mansion in the rich part of town. Rupert finds himself whisked into Christmas day with the huge and very eccentric Rivers Family. It should be the day all his dreams come true - an abundance of delicious food, games with fabulous prizes and moments of genuine laughter and happiness but right at the end of this extravagant day everything goes horribly wrong. 

What Rupert does not realise, though, is that some of the crazy family members feel sorry for the way things turn out and so over the coming months each of them, secretly, take Rupert out of his home and school with the intention of treating him to a wonderful day. Unfortunately though, these amazing days never seem actually work out and each time Rupert is left hungry, puzzled and disappointed. 

Publisher blurb: Ten-year-old Rupert Brown inadvertently finds himself spending Christmas with the wealthiest family in town and is astonished to discover a world he never knew existed. Rupert lives with his parents and many siblings in a small house in the poorest section of Steelville, Ohio. When he spends Christmas with his classmate Turgid Rivers, he is offered all the food he can eat, and the opportunity to win wonderful prizes in the family games—prizes he hopes to take home so he can share his Christmas bounty with his family. But after he loses everything in the last game, Rupert resigns himself to going home empty handed. Feeling secretly guilty, all of the adults in Rivers family try to make it up to him by taking Rupert on one unlikely adventure after another, embroiling him in everything from time travel to bank robberies. But can anything he experiences make up for what he has lost? Deftly blending magical realism with heartbreak, hope, and a wide cast of eccentric characters, Polly Horvath weaves a tale that is darkly funny and deeply poignant. Very Rich is a bittersweet and quirky story that celebrates the unique nature of human experience.

I would love to book talk this book with a group of Grade 5 or 6 students. I think I would read `page 32 and 33 - the Christmas feast. This book will also be perfect for fans of A series of Unfortunate Events and Roald Dahl (especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) books. 

Horvath is at her odd, arch best here—generous with her wry observations of people and their awkward relationships and foibles. Kirkus

Horvath is having a ball with this story. It’s fast-paced and filled with witty asides, creative scenarios, and a ridiculously entertaining cast. She pulls from Dickens, but Rupert’s parents have qualities akin to Roald Dahl’s despicable adult characters, and Uncle Henry’s time machine is a whirring cardboard box reminiscent of Dorothy’s flying house and the hot-air balloon in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Plus, there is a gravity-defying restaurant scene similar to the laughing-gas chapter in Mary Poppins. Quill and Quire

After reading this book you may want to make a funnel cake. I had no idea about this but they sound delicious.

Find the Recipe here 

When I was growing up, my family had a tradition of visiting the county fair every year. I loved riding the ferris wheel and viewing all of the livestock, but what I looked forward to the most was all of the fair food! I loved the deep fried Oreos, corn dogs, kettle corn, and best of all, the funnel cakes! There really is nothing better than a hot funnel cake, dusted with powdered sugar.

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing (and I hope to also entice you to read this book!)

"There were three bedrooms in the house. One for the boys, one for the girls, and one for Mr and Mrs Brown. In the boys' and girls' bedrooms, the younger children slept in the beds and the older ones slept under them. Rupert shared the underneath of a bed with John and Dirk."

"He could feel the chocolate ooze all over his tongue and run down into his stomach, where it awoke a hunter so vast, it was as if the chocolate were a flame thawing Rupert's frozen insides and igniting the appetite therein."

"He ate the roll and then saw the butter pat and he stuck that whole into his mouth and let it melt in savory wonder all over is tongue. He'd never had butter. The only kind of fat the Brown's ever saw was lard. He like lard but the butter was simply out of this world."

"Tomorrow we're going to the library to get library cards and then we'll get books of stories to read. But tonight I'll tell you one of mine."