The Chocolate Touch

My 7 year old child loved the book. Nice book with a good moral.

'The Chocolate Touch' by Patrick Skene Catling is an old book, unlike most of the others I select for my book clubs. Its copyright dates back to 1952! And that’s not the only thing that makes it different from the books I usually choose. Another important distinction is that it has a clear moral, something I usually avoid. But the story is such fun! Plus, it’s about chocolate, so it’s already a win, isn’t it? John Midas loves chocolate. He can eat it all the time. Or so he thinks. It is only when everything that touches his lips turns to chocolate that he begins to realise that there might just be a limit to the amount of chocolate he can eat. At first, no one believes him. How could they? He has to be lying. How can everything he puts in his mouth turn to chocolate? That’s absurd! Eventually, however, everyone realises he is telling the truth. Even the doctor has no choice but to believe him. The question is, of course, what can he do about it except to look at him as an exciting specimen? With all the Midas touch references, The Chocolate Touch is both unique and familiar. It’s perfectly paced and an utter delight.

Book is good but quality of pages and printing are poor compared to the price paid. Is this a cheaper Indian imprint ??

The printing and page quality was bad

I read this book when I was a kid, so I bought it and read it again. John Midas, like most kids, is mad about candy, especially chocolate, and he's a bit of a pain but a nice lad, apparently. He comes across a mysterious candy shop one day and the shopkeeper is equally mysterious. On the way there he finds a mysterious coin with a fat boy on it and his own initials; he could give it to his friend Susan to start a coin collection, but naaahh, he'd rather go and spend it in there. And surprisingly it is enough to buy a huge, fancy box of chocolates with. So he sneaks back home with it - through the back, to avoid being caught and told off - and hides it under his bed until bedtime. When it finally is bedtime, he opens up the box, takes out wrapper after wrapper and finds that the only chocolate in it is a small golden ball. He's a bit disappointed but he eats it anyway and it's delish. When he cleans his teeth the next morning he finds that the toothpaste tastes like chocolate - how did that happen? It's strange, but it still tastes delish. His little sister Mary thinks he's bluffing. But then the same thing happens when he's eating his breakfast; his bacon and eggs taste like chocolate somehow, his toast is suddenly chocolate flavoured, the butter becomes chocolate spread, marmalade basically becomes a kind of chocolate jam, and orange juice becomes chocolate juice. On his way to school he mistakenly puts the tip of his thumb in his mouth while he's got his old leather gloves on, and they turn into chocolate too. He gets pounced on by the school bully Spider Wilson who thinks he's being freakish, then tries to eat the gloves himself, only find, disgustedly, that it doesn't work for him. Eventually John realises it; the sweet he ate last night has given him a magic touch that enables him to turn anything that touches his mouth into chocolate. He turns his pencil into a chocolate pencil during a test and the list goes on... the novelty soon begins to wear off and at lunchtime he longs to taste something else for a change. He tries to eat his lunch in a way that doesn't touch his mouth but, damn and blast, it all turns into chocolate, and even the bloody cutlery and the glass he's drank from are transformed into cocao sculptures. He also loses his best friend Susan when he ruins a trinket of hers by making the mistake of putting it into his mouth. And then his precious trumpet is ruined - you can imagine what happened and how. Despite their early fallout, he goes to Susan's party and a game of duck apple gets ruined - I'll leave the details to your imagination. He is sick and tired of it all now, and wants it to stop. His dad sorts him out and he tries to show him the sweet shop, only to find that it has been bulldozed 😮 So Dad takes him to the doctor, who sees the whole weird phenomenon for himself, along with John's parents, when John tries to take a spoon of medicine. His parents are understandably very upset about their son's mysterious condition, and for once John is concerned about his parents. While comforting his tearful mum he accidentally turns her into a chocolate statue - shock, horror! 😮 It is the last straw, so he runs out of the house in exasperation, stumbles across where the sweet shop was and find that it's back there again, almost exactly as it was 😮 In the window he finds every single thing that has been turned into chocolate by him. He goes in and pleads with the man, vowing to change his ways, begging for his mum to be brought back to life. He has a talk with the man and realises it has all been a lesson, to teach him not to be selfish and greedy, and that too much of the same food and nothing else gets positively sickening after a while. You do feel sad for him at the point where he has lost his friends and just cannot stand chocolate anymore, but then you are glad for his sake, and his family and friends' sakes, that he has learned his lesson. He goes home and is relieved to find that his mum is back to life, and everything that was turned into chocolate returns to its original form. His wretched chocolate touch is gone and he enjoys a nice glass of milk in the normal way. He wants to go and say a last-minute thank you and goodbye to the shopkeeper, but when he gets there the shop has been mysteriously bulldozed - again 😮 So there you have it 😀 If you think the plot sounds like the kind of story that your child would enjoy, I suggest you buy them this book ☺ It doesn't matter that it was written in the '50s, because the story and the message behind it are the main things.

Estoy leyendo estelibro con mis alumnos, y les encanto!! La lección que transmite esta muy buena!!!

This is such a great read-aloud in elementary school! We have fun with it every year.

I’m a third-grade teacher, and The Chocolate Touch is one of my students’ favorite book club reads! The reading level is just right for this age—challenging enough to keep them engaged, but not frustrating. The story is a timeless classic that sparks great discussions about choices, consequences, and kindness. My students always beg to keep reading each day. Highly recommend for classroom libraries or family read-alouds!

Uma história de aventura muito boa, engraçada. Um garoto que amava chocolate, mas que ao longo da história, passou pelo desconforto de tudo o que colocava na boca, se transformava em chocolate. Uma história bem diferente, mas que coloca em perspectiva várias emoções vividas pelo garoto. Recomendo para crianças que já dominem minimamente a língua inglesa.