Showing posts with label Harper Collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harper Collins. Show all posts

Sunday 28 May 2017

AniMalcolm by David Baddiel - A Howling Good Read!

My daughter Emma absolutely loves to read. She enjoys getting involved in a good book and being whisked away into a story of fun and adventure. She loves the kind of books where you just can't wait to find out what happens next and if it contains a comedy element too, then even better.

Animalcolm by David Baddiel was therefore the perfect new addition to her book collection, as not only does it offer a fun exciting story, but it also contains lots of fabulous animals, which is ideal for my pet loving daughter!

The Book

The book tells the story of Malcolm, who doesn't like animals! This is a problem because his family love them and their house is full of pets. What the house is NOT full of is stuff Malcolm likes. Such as the laptop he wanted for his birthday.

The only bright spot on the horizon is the Year Six school trip, to....Oh no. A farm.

Over the next few days, Malcolm changes. He learns what it's really like to be an animal. A whole series of animals, in fact...

It does make him think differently. And speak differently. And eat differently. And, um, smell differently. But will he end up the same as before?

Because sometimes the hardest thing to become is YOURSELF!





Animalcolm is written by David Baddiel who is both an author and comedian. It is his third novel, with his previous titles 'The Parent Agency' and 'The Person Controller' being runaway bestsellers. The Parent Agency was also the winner of the Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9 to 13 year olds at the inaugural Laugh Out Loud Awards.

The book is now available in paperback format and was previously released as a hardback book.

Review

As soon as the book arrived my daughter had a quick glance through the pages. She was intially surprised by the width of the book with it being slightly bigger to books that she would usually select. However when she looked inside she found that the text size was quite large and there were also some illustrations within the book, so she soon realised that she would actually be able to read it quite quickly.

The front cover of the book also drew attention from the youngest member of the family Riley, who thought that the pictures of the sheep and the pig riding a horse were absolutely hilarious causing lots of giggles.

It wasn't long before Emma had her head firmly in the book and before I had even finished making our dinner, she proudly proclaimed that she had finished the first two chapters. It quickly became apparent that it was a book she was really enjoying and even took it to school with her so that she could read it at break time, or quiet time in class.

The titles of some of the chapters also created a few giggles with her brother Ben, as she kept reading out the chapter headings out loud, such as 'Stinky Blinky' and 'Manky Lettuce'. This in turn attracted Ben's attention to the book with him quickly asking whether he could read it next.

We received the book on Thursday and by Saturday evening my daughter had finished it. She enjoyed it that much that she even missed the first part of Britain's Got Talent so that she could complete the final chapter, now that is commitment!

Overall Emma really enjoyed the book. It is aimed at 8 to 11 year olds and is suitable for both boys and girls. My daughter is 10 years old, so the perfect age to enjoy both the story and the comedy aspect within. She really liked the fact that there is some illustrations too, as most of the books that she reads now are just writing only and so she said it was nice to get some idea of what the characters and animals looked like.

This was the first David Baddiel book that she has read, but on noticing that he has written two prior to this one, she has already asked to purchase The Parent Agency with her next lot of pocket money.

Disclaimer: This is a collaborative post and we received a copy of the book on a complimentary basis for the purpose of provide an honest review.