"Didn't you ever believe anything just because you knew it was true?"

Young Primrose Squarp's plaintive question drives the residents of Coal Harbour, British Columbia up the wall and back down again. The truth is: her parents drowned when their boat collapsed in a typhoon. Sitting on the dock every day watching the ocean won't bring them back. Frankly, think most townspeople, the child needs to face the facts.

Primrose is the kind of narrator you can't help but love. Her naivete makes her vulnerable, but her faith keeps her strong. Her observations on life are downright hilarious. Take this note she jots down next to a recipe for tea biscuits:

The narration is pitch-perfect, as fresh as a child's take on life always is. Plenty of funny situations balance out the tragedies that befall Primrose, cushioning them for the reader as well as our intrepid heroine. What results is a funny, but subtly poignant story about a girl who refuses to give up on what she knows in her heart to be true.

Everything on a Waffle is a thoroughly enjoyable story, filled with eccentric characters and a very engaging narrator. The only thing that soured it for me was the odd, rushed ending. It just felt like a cop-out to me. I'm not sure what kind of ending I imagined, but it definitely wasn't the one Horvath supplied. Did it work? Not for me. Ah, well. You win some, you lose some. It's still a fun, different book that kids should find as entertaining as ... lasagna on a waffle ... or shepherd's pie on a waffle ... or, well, everything on a waffle!

If this were a movie, it would be rated: G