The recommendation list alone could empty a bookstore. A rock icon, a Shakespearean impresario, a clinical psychologist, and an international review board have all pointed, emphatically, to the same title: MUMAGEDDON! And the Food Magician by Sonya Anise. Published by Books Beautiful, this rollicking, rhyming picture book for readers 8+ is racking up prizes and praise with the velocity of a runaway whisk.
Start with the critics. Readers’ Favorite awarded the coveted 5-Star Seal, with Miche Arendse calling the book “Brilliantly crafted, a mischievous masterpiece… an absolute joy to read!” From the music world, Suede frontman and author Brett Anderson insists, “Parents will enjoy it as much as their kids.” Theatre tastemaker Paul Moss—co-founder of The HandleBards—salutes it as “A hilarious slapstick joyride!” And child psychologist Anneke Reijmerink goes straight to impact: “an absolute gift for children’s emotional and social development.” Add the gleeful verdict of one reader—“as good as Roald Dahl’s poems!!!”—plus a sparkling 4.9/5 Amazon rating across 100+ reviews and multiple international book awards, and you have a chorus that’s hard to ignore.
The book earns every bravo. Anise tells the tale entirely in buoyant, clever verse and illustrates it herself with darting, mischievous linework—a one-woman orchestra of rhythm and image. The plot is a confection with bite: a cocoa-obsessed boy, blessed with food magic and cursed with a merciless stepmother, is banished from the kitchen and exiled to a beastly boarding school. Armed with wit and whisk, he concocts fantastical reprisals that turn punishment into pandemonium and mischief into music. It’s mischievous, moving, and just a touch gruesome in the way children adore—catnip for fans of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, and David Walliams.
Beneath the laughter, Anise plates a nourishing core. The story champions passion, voice, compromise, and forgiveness, quietly opening doors to conversations about resilience, empathy, blended families, and self-belief. As child psychologists have noted, it’s “a delightful gem that ticks every box,” sparking joy while engaging big feelings with featherlight finesse.
Part of the allure is the author’s virtuosity. An award-winning author-illustrator, fine artist, and product designer, Anise is a Central Saint Martins graduate who has worked as an art director, founded an eco-luxury brand, and run a gallery. Born in Dublin and seasoned by life in England, Ireland, Spain, Australia, Costa Rica, and Mexico, she now creates from the Balearic Islands. That global, multidisciplinary lens shows on every page: the rhymes have snap, the pictures have swing, and the storytelling has the confident architecture of a practiced maker.
Then there’s the book’s backstory—a secret aged to perfection. First written when Anise was a young woman, MUMAGEDDON! sat quietly for 25 years before she finally let it sing. “I hope it inspires readers to listen to their inner whisperings and follow their dreams,” she says. That long simmer lends the work both polish and pulse, the kind of finish only time and talent can deliver.
With a sequel already in the works, now’s the moment to meet the Food Magician. Watch the book trailer, linger over the images, and see why musicians, theatre-makers, psychologists, and critics—along with hundreds of delighted families—are recommending a read-aloud that ricochets between belly laughs and big-hearted grace. In Sonya Anise’s hands, language is a ladle, rhythm a recipe, and storytelling a spell.
