Oh, we do have a love of all things Horrid in this house. And the beauty with Horrid Henry books are that you know exactly what you’re going to get with each and every story - high quality writing, fun story lines and never a moment of disappointment. And, yet again, Francesca Simon has delivered two more delicious books.
‘Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire‘ is the twentieth storybook in this multi-million-copy-selling series, containing Horrid Henry stories. This new book contains four new stories in which Horrid Henry terrorizes his classmates at a school sleepover in the museum; plays with Perfect Peter and tricks him into handing over all his money; gets out of writing his own story for Miss Battle-Axe by adapting one of Peter’s; and meets the Nudie Foodie, a celebrity chef, who comes to the school to improve school dinners.
‘Horrid Henry’s A - Z of Everything Horrid’ offers a very perfect welcome to Horrid Henry’s wicked world.This essential A-Z gives details of all things hilarious and horrid, crazy and chaotic, fiendishly fantastic and utterly brilliant. A is for APRIL FOOLS’ DAY, Horrid Henry’s favourite day of the year (except his birthday, of course.) B is for BOGEY BABYSITTER, Rabid Rebecca, the toughest teen in town. C is for CHRISTMAS PRESENTS, Father Christmas had better get it right this year! From the Purple Hand to pink frilly knickers; supersoakers to Sour Susan; football fiends to fizzywhiz drinks; demon dinner ladies to Dungeon Drinks - this book has it all and more. An encyclopedia of absolutely EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about Horrid Henry.
But then there’s something a little bit different, for an 8+ audience - ‘A Year without Autumn’ by Liz Kessler.
If you could see into the future - would you look?
Jenni Green doesn’t have a choice. On her way to visit her best friend, Autumn, Jenni suddenly finds she’s been transported exactly one year forward in time. Now she discovers that in the year that’s gone by, tragedy has struck and her friendship with Autumn will never be the same again.
But what caused the tragedy? How did Jenni skip a year? And can she find her way back to the past to try to change what lies ahead?
I absolutely loved this one (and reading it with Littlest). Looking at the importance of friendships curves the entire narrative. Easy to read, utterly engaging and showing the jigsawing together of events that can lead to tragedy (and how to prevent that tragedy, if you’re brave enough). This book is clever, effortlessly so. I can’t wait to read more by Liz Kessler.
And, finally, a little bit of something else to end this post. I don’t think many of you will have thought of me in this way before…
