The Van Gogh Cafe

This is a book that confirms my love of the creativity of Rylant.

The Van Gogh Cafe is magical and there is no doubt about that for ten year old Clara.

Her father owns the cafe and she helps to dispense the food to those who visit.

Once a theater, perhaps some of the magic remains. While Clara's father pens poems on napkins, the food cooks itself, including marvelous lemon pies.

Muffins wrapped in foil and left by a previous movie star have the power to heal. A possum hangs upside down near the window of the cafe and gives purpose to a disillusioned man who opens a shelter for lost animals; a Emerald the cat falls in love with the sea gull who appeared mysteriously in Flowers, Kansas!

This is a delightful, soft, wonderfully written tale. I show more loved it!!! show less

At the Van Gogh Cafe, located in an otherwise sleepy town, strange things have been known to happen....

This book caught my eye with its beautiful cover artwork, as well as with the author's name, as Rylant has written many a picture book. The description sounded interesting, but I felt that the book fell a bit flat.

It was not bad, but it was not entirely gripping either. It seemed to be more in a vignette style than a linear plot, although it was moving ahead chronologically. The characterizations were pretty slim and one-dimensional.

Perhaps it just wasn't my cup of tea, for this book did win heaps of praise and honors. To me, it just felt like the title didn't live up to all that.

A sweet and simple book as comfortable to read as spending your afternoon in your favorite coffee shop on a rainy Sunday. Each chapter softly nudges you to continue on, hopeful and optimistic like a child who knows magic truly exists in the everyday occurrences of random lives coming together in one place. Rylant understands how to create a graceful, soft story, laced with a bit of wonder and magic that captures the reader to continue the story of this auspicious cafe.

For teachers, this book would be a great tool for character descriptions, predictions and inferences. At the end of each chapter includes a few, yet loaded phrases to keep the reading expecting more. Well done.

Sweet, a little bit too much so. Not sure of the relevance of naming the cafe after a French mad artist. But I'm rating it highly because: one of the little stories was about a true love that lasted a lifetime - that just happened to involve, btw, two men. Recommended for fans of Alice Hoffman and others who like rich bites of heartwarming fantasy.

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

The Van Gogh Café is magic. Nobody knows quite how or why, but they all agree that it is. Nobody knows it better than ten-year-old Clara. She helps her dad, Marc, run the café. Clara knows how much the café loves stories, and the small stories don't often stay small for long.

To the people in Flowers, Kansas, who have been going to the café all of their lives, the unbelievable is pretty normal, and the impossible seems quite possible. Anything can happen at the Van Gogh Café.

From lost loves found, to a cat that falls in love with a seagull. From food that cooks itself, to magically multiplying muffins. From prophetic poetry on napkins, to a possum that helps a man find his life again. show more You never know what you might find at the Van Gogh Café.

I love it!

My only complaint is that it's too short and I want more! My only question is, can I please go visit? Maybe even work there? Oh, that's two questions. show less

The Van Gogh Café was overall a good book. It is very interesting because it keeps 2 main characters: Clara and her dad, Marc, but each chapter talks about a different person or event that is not really mentioned in the next. It is more a collection of short stories than a chapter book, making for an interesting read while waiting to see if they end up connecting. It was a good book because the theme was based around magic while still talking about things that generally could happen, making it interesting. Like most chapter books, each chapter gives more depth about the characters’ lives through an interesting way. For example, I learned that Marc loves old movies because a man, who happens to be a (dead) movie star from the 1920s show more walks into the café. “…he came to the Van Gogh Café and waited for his friend to take him home” is how Rylant described the movie star dying. Each magical thing that happens in the café is good. I think this is good because in a lot of books with magic, magic is seen as both good and bad, but in this book it is seen as only something good that can bring people together. That is how I always thought of magic. The cafe used to be a theater and it shows how people's imaginations can truly shape the world others live in. show less

The Van Gogh Cafe by Cynthia Rylant is full of magical surprises. The main character Clara practically lives at the Van Gogh cafe. Thats because her dad owns it! She goes every morning before school and every afternoon after school to help her dad out. Like he needs help, sometimes the food cooks itself! But thats normal for the Van Gogh cafe. So are the future telling poems that her dad leaves all around the cafe. Everyone in town thinks of it as a second home.

What I did not like about this book was that there was no overall storyline or plot. It consisted of a short story in every chapter all about the magical occurrences in the cafe. Each chapter has its own plot. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Bad thing meaning show more there's no real story. Good thing being that you stay interested. This reminds me of a book of short stories.

Overall the book was very interesting and I did enjoy reading it and all of its magical surprises. I would definitely recommend The Van Gogh Cafe by Cynthia Rylant. You will never want to put this book down. show less