The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Russell Brand – A Book Review

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Chris Riddell, funny stories, picture books, Russell Brand, stories for older readers, stories with a twist, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, traditional tales, Trickster Tales

This book caught my eye in a second hand book shop a few weeks ago because of the illustrations by Chris Riddell more than anything else. I like Russell Brand’s work, but I was understandably wary about him writing a children’s book, given the nature of his adult material and also publishers who publish celebrities simply because they were celebrities. I flicked through it in the shop and it looked alright, and I thought my son would love it because of the brilliant illustrations by Riddell, so I bought it despite my misgivings and the fact that I have always hated the story of The Pied Piper.

He read the whole thing in one sitting, very excitedly telling me that it had lots of rude words in it. Given that he is reading me all the Disc World books I felt that horse had already bolted, so merely sighed and thought I would have to read it before I loaned it to any other children.

When he’d finished it, he gave it to my 17 year old daughter to read, who also read it in one sitting. She put it firmly on the top of my to read pile and insisted I read it because I would love it. I did read it, and I did love it. And Oscar is right. It’s full of rude words!

I’ve always hated the Pied Piper story. I always felt so sorry for the little boy on crutches who gets left behind at the end of the story. It seemed so unfair to leave him with the horrible people of Hamelin. The whole story is just downright mean.

Brand subverts this and without changing the plot at all, manages to turn it from a mean hearted parable that smacks of Victorian morality to an anarchic, funny story in which the weakest, most despised person in the story is the one who reaps the rewards.

It’s scatalogically fruity, quite demented and at times laugh out loud funny. It’s thought provoking and clever and the illustrations by Riddell only add to the anarchistic genius of the book. I found it completely refreshing and would think it is a perfect book to entice reluctant readers into enthusiasm and would work wonderfully for the tens and overs as long as you’ve got a strong threshold for rudeness.

 

Ottoline and the Purple Fox by Chris Riddell – A Review

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books with amazing illustrations, Chris Riddell, funny books, illustrators, Ottoline And The Purple Fox, transitional books

Ottoline and the Purple Fox is the fourth book in the Ottoline series by Chris Riddell and long awaited it has been. I have loved Ottoline since the very first book in the series, Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, and loved her so much I never waited for paperbacks. I was very sad when after the third book, Ottoline at Sea, it looked like Chris Riddell had retired her in favour of pastures new.

With the glorious Goth Girl series, I felt he had redeemed himself, and with all the awards heaped upon Goth Girl, I wonder if his publisher allowed him to resurrect Ottoline. However it happened, I was utterly delighted to receive Ottoline and the Purple Fox last year and I saved it until I knew I would be able to completely savour it. Certain books are reserved for deep enjoyment in the manner of break glass with hammer in an emergency. This is such a book.

I was poorly over the last few days, and after having waded through two dreary Jack London books out of a weird and entirely misplaced sense of duty, I knew it was time to enjoy Ottoline and enjoy her I did. Every, single page was a joy to read.

Ottoline is a young girl who lives alone with a bog creature from Norway called Mr. Monroe, who resembles Cousin It from The Addams Family. Her parents are explorers who write to her regularly and send home finds for the collections that Ottoline curates. Ottoline is not lonely as she has many friends and acquaintances and an entire raft of employees who come in to help her. In her previous books, she solved mysteries. In this book, rather more whimsical things happen.

This book shows Ottoline finding a new friend and setting up a story line I hope means there will be more books for. It also sees her exploring the strange city she lives in, in the company of a dapper fox as he takes her on an urban safari. Ottoline and Mr. Monroe also try their hand at matchmaking with very romantic results.

The Ottoline books are funny, charming, and glorious to read. The books are full of little jokes and asides and things to discover and savour. The illustrations are gorgeous, the books are beautiful things in themselves and there is, as ever, a little surprise tucked into the back of the book for the reader. These are perennially popular with all readers I tried them with, boys and girls, and they are fantastic for transitional readers because the text is so simple and the illustrations so beguiling.

Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright by Chris Riddell

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books for boys, books for girls, Chris Riddell, funny books, Goth Girl, Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright

This morning I read Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright by Chris Riddell. It was the perfect antidote to finishing Pratchett’s Shepherd’s Crown yesterday. I confess that I was bit broken and this mended me.

Long term readers will know I love Riddell and pretty much anything that he writes/illustrates. As he is currently Children’s Laureate here in the UK I am glad to say that we are being absolutely spoiled in terms of output. Long may it last.

Goth Girl is the fourth full length adventure for Goth Girl (there is also a World Book Day, shorter adventure, which is also fantastic). In this book Ada and her father host a literary dog show at Ghastly-Gorm Hall and Ada and her friends explore strange goings on in the night, which may be the resident ghosts playing up, but which may also be something more troubling. Only time will tell.

We have the usual cast of characters; Maltravers the unpleasant game keeper, Mrs. Beat ’em the cook, Lord Goth, and Ada’s friends and fellow detectives when it comes to figuring out what is amiss at the hall. Then there are some splendid new additions with literary jokes aplenty in the three Vicarage sisters, Emily, Anne and Charlotte and their brother Bramble, four devoted dog owners including Plain Austen and Homily Dickinson, and a whole host of other marvellously funny characters. My particular favourite being Chris Riddell lampooning himself.

I love Goth Girl, because wonderful as they are to read in their own right, and children will absolutely and do absolutely enjoy them just for the straightforward narrative, there is so much more to them if you know your history and literature. As a fairly well read adult I find all the in jokes and puns an absolute delight and they really do lift the books to completely new heights. There are allusions here to everything from the earliest computers to Elsa from Frozen and in between.

The illustrations, as ever, are wonderful in and of themselves and there is so much to see and read on every page it’s almost like being a detective yourself at times. I love the additional extra, tiny book at the end, and even the end pages.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly to adults who want something to read to children they can really get their teeth into themselves and actively want to read to them. It’s also perfect for readers aged 7 and up, boys and girls. It would make a fantastic transitional or chapter book for newly confident readers but will also stand many re-readings as the reader grows more skilled in comprehension.

I cannot wait for the next book.

 

Illustration – It’s What You Need.

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children's laureate, Chris Riddell, illustrators

The author and illustrator, Chris Riddell is the current Children’s Laureate, for those of you who are not up to speed with such things. The Children’s Laureateship was started a few years ago now, and unlike the Poet Laureate’s job, which is one for life, it gets passed on to someone new every two years.  The first Children’s Laureate was Quentin Blake. Since then the post has been held by Michael Rosen and Malorie Blackman amongst others.

Each Laureate brings a different set of ideas and passions to the post. Each also has an agenda. Blackman, who was the previous incumbent, focussed on encouraging and championing diversity in children’s literature. Chris Riddell is passionate about celebrating both author and illustrator, and giving illustrators and artists their due weight and respect.

Picture books are where everyone starts their journey to reading these days. From books with no words at all, to simple ABC primers and single word books, to story books and comics, we should celebrate illustration in children’s literacy. It is one of the things that people consider separates work for adults from work for children. Well unless you count the renaissance of the graphic novel and the fact that lots of adult novels get illustrated too.

There is, however, some snobbery about pictures in books. There is an undercurrent of belief that somehow pictures in books make them babyish or infantile, that pictures are unsophisticated. There are those that believe pictures rob us of our imaginative powers, and that they dilute what books have to say, as well as the minds who have to work out what is going on in books.

I think this is a nonsense. Adult novels that are illustrated can be intensely imaginative and sophisticated. I am thinking in particular here of author/illustrators like Mervyn Peake and his Gormenghast trilogy. I am thinking about some of the spectacular artwork that accompanies the countless editions of The Lord of the Rings. I am thinking about the collaboration between Charles Dickens and the illustrator, Phiz.

Children’s books are not makeweight when they include illustrations. Illustrations can be the means of bringing a book to life. They open another door inside the door of possibility you’ve already opened when you read the first page. Not all illustrations do this, but many do, and we should appreciate and champion what they offer us.

Pictures can be incredibly sophisticated. They can add richness, and depth and texture to words. They can show us nuances in a story we might have missed. The best of them enhance the story they illustrate by giving us new ideas, new plot lines, new narrative possibilities to explore. They can be humorous, or sad, they can be terrifying or uplifting. They can tell us jokes. They can underline a moral point or question. They can capture expressions as well as fleeting moments in time. They can show us time passing, just like films.

Unlike film and television, however, where the image is on the screen for a fleeting moment and then it’s gone, the pictures in books allow us to immerse ourselves in the details of the story, to focus our attention on what interests us, to pick up on something we might have missed. They beg questions of us, and can keep us turning pages long after we should have put the book down. They can keep us glued to a single page, long after we should have turned it.

Illustrators should be carried through the streets on gilded chairs while we cheer and throw soft, lovely things at them in my opinion. Here are some of my favourites:

Chris Riddell is an obvious choice. His glorious collaborations with Neil Gaiman are a highlight for me, particularly the spectacularly gothic and beautiful Sleeper and the Spindle.  My son was obsessed by Kathryn Cave’s Horatio Happens, which he illustrated. and Wendel’s Workshop, which he wrote and illustrated himself. My daughters, and me, love the Ottoline and Goth Girl series’. He is a genius.

Adam Stower is a fantastic author/illustrator. I particularly love his book Slam! which has only one or two words in it, and yet is utterly gripping. I have used it time and time again in schools to demonstrate the power of story telling without words. It’s a classic.

David Weisner is another author/illustrator whose book Tuesday, which has no words in it, is a fantastic, engaging, sophisticated text I return to time and time again.

Shirley Hughes, who I have written about on this blog countless times, is someone I love for her faithful rendition of the ordinary life of children through the passing decades. Her attention to detail, her affection for her subject and her skill is unsurpassed.

Korky Paul who illustrates the Winnie the Witch books by Valerie Thomas, is a fine artist/author whose work is funny and subversive and psychedelically vivid. He has written and illustrated countless books, all of which are amusing, absorbing and utterly skilful.

Quentin Blake has to be my final mention. Everyone recognises his style thanks to his collaborations with Roald Dahl, but he has done so much more than this, and his own books are fabulous. Cockatoos is one of my favourites and my children all loved Simpkin.

I have only scratched the surface here. I haven’t mentioned the greatness of Beatrix Potter or the beauty of E.H. Shepherd or the glories of Brian Wildsmith. I haven’t touched on the wonder of Emily Gravett or the delights of Neal Layton. I have barely had time to think about my undying love of Judith Kerr and how much I adore Lauren Child.

I’ve got no time to talk about how wonderful Levi Pinfold and his book Black Dog are, or why I get so excited by Jon Klassen’s work. I want to tell you more about Alex T. Smith and his fabulous Claude books. I want to put Sarah McIntyre’s pictures on my wall. Let it never be underestimated how much Tove Jansson’s art influenced my life as much as her words.

I could write about illustrators forever. Let’s celebrate what they add to books, how they bring books to life, how they make books accessible, how they make them deeper and better and make something fantastic more so. Hooray for them and their side.

Argh.

There is so much to enjoy. Who are your favourite illustrators?

Ted Rules The World by Frank Cottrell Boyce – A Book Review

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Barrington Stoke, book review, Cate James, Chris Riddell, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Ted Rules The World

Ted Rules the World by Frank Cottrell Boyce is the last book in my latest parcel from dyslexia friendly publisher, Barrington Stoke. I decided to save it until last because I knew it would be my favourite of all the books they had sent me, and I just finished reading The Astounding Broccoli Boy and this was by way of consoling myself that I was not quite yet up to date with what Cottrell Boyce has written. Sadly, having finished this, I am now.

I mean no disrespect to the other books I have reviewed, they were all great and I was given some world class authors to review, but I cannot tell a lie about how I, and my children, feel about a new book from Frank, and there’s no point trying to hide our outrageous bias towards all things Cottrell Boyce.

We were not disappointed.

I confess that I read the book myself first. Then I read it to my two youngest children at breakfast the following day who were moaning because I’d already read it without them. Then I went to fetch it to review and found that my sixteen year old had snuck off upstairs with it and was chortling away to herself. She particularly liked the fact that the government try to keep Ted’s silence with a threat of living with ‘no TV and only goats for company.’ She’s a huge fan of goats.

I’ve only just got the book back.

Ted is a young boy afflicted with red hair and a family commitment to supporting Stockport County football club.  This has, up to now, made life somewhat tricky and a little disappointing.  The story begins on Ted’s birthday when he wakes early thinking his mum and dad are downstairs planning the most amazing birthday surprise ever.

Instead they are asleep on the sofa, having stayed up all night to watch the election of the country’s new Prime Minister.

Ted’s birthday doesn’t start well, and being bullied on the bus on the way to school doesn’t improve matters.  On the way home he stops at the new ‘Neighbourhood’ supermarket to buy himself some consolatory birthday Hula Hoops. The lady at the till seems very friendly and extremely interested in Ted.

This interest doesn’t really register with him until he begins to realise that the things he is telling the lady on the tills at Neighbourhood are being featured on the news, as laws enacted by the new Prime Minister.

Ted is, as his friend Benedict says: ‘the Leader.’

It is quite a responsibility.

The book is sharply funny and a thoughtful, clever look at what power does, albeit from an unusual and unorthodox point of view.  I love the way that Cottrell Boyce gives the most unlikely characters authority in his books, and how he uses it to comment on society at large. There are times when I glimpse a hint of Pratchettian satire gleaming through his stories, and I rejoice.

The satire will probably be overlooked by the majority of child readers, but it is one of the things that makes Cottrell Boyce’s books so readable both for adults and children, and makes them works you can come back to time and again, whether it be short stories like this, and Desirable, or full length novels like Millions.

The cover art by Chris Riddell is a real treat. I thought I might be underwhelmed by the main illustrations by Cate James, given the illustrious company she’s keeping, but she more than holds her own here. The images are crisp, funny and well suited to the material.

The inside covers feature a test to see how you’d measure up as a Prime Minister yourself, and a chance to illustrate your own funny news segment for television. The usual cover flaps help people like me who are forever losing bookmarks, and the clear font, short chapter lengths, and cream pages give the usual Barrington Stoke polish to the book, making it much easier for anyone struggling with reading disabilities, and elderly ladies like myself with poor eyesight.

As well as being excellent for me, and my family, Barrington Stoke recommends this book to children aged eight and up. It has an interest age ranging from five to eight. I’d say if you love Cottrell Boyce’s novels, which are aimed at an older readership, do not be put off by this. This and Desirable, are of just as high a standard as his novels and have many of the same themes.

You can sample the first chapter by clicking the link, here.

There is a Q&A session with Frank Cottrell Boyce about Ted Rules the World, here.

Goth Girl and the Pirate Queen by Chris Riddell – A Book Review

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book review, Chris Riddell, Goth Girl and the Pirate Queen

Goth Girl and the Pirate Queen by Chris Riddell is a short story about Goth Girl, which is set just after Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death finishes. It prepares the ground for the new (Yay!) Goth Girl book, Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright, which is due to be published in the autumn of 2015.

Goth Girl and the Pirate Queen is available as a stand alone publication and was part of the 2015 World Book Day Celebrations in which the special World Book Day stories are £1 each.

In this story, Ada Goth is off to Brighton for a bit of sea air. While she is there she intends to visit the newly erected and as yet unfinished Brighton Pavilion and marvel at the girth and sheer size of the Prince Regent’s trousers.  She also wants to take part in a fashion show which the Prince Regent will attend.  Her father, Lord Goth, has given her twenty guineas to visit some of the most fashionable dress makers of the day while she is in Brighton.

The story, though short, is filled with the usual, irreverent Riddell humour.  The fashion designers that Ada visits are Lady Vivienne Dashwood and Jean-Paul Goatee, whose portraits look remarkably like Ms Westwood and monsieur Gaultier.  I also liked the nod to Jane Austen with the use of the name Dashwood.

I love the way Riddell deflates the pomposity of the rich and famous and their fashionable ways. I also love the way he shows his vast storehouse of knowledge about art, literature, history and in fact just about anything you care to mention, but does it with such a lightness of touch that it never grates on the reader or seems like showing off.

It is also done with such skill that even if you don’t know half of what Riddell is alluding to, and most children who read this won’t, it is still a great, funny read with plenty to entertain and amuse.  Suitable for girls and boys aged 8 and up.

Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death by Chris Riddell: A Book Review

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book review, Chris Riddell, Goth Girl, Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death

I have had Chris Riddell’s, Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death on my to read pile for quite some time now.  It is the sequel to the wonderful: Goth Girl and the Ghost of A Mouse, which I absolutely adored.  I knew that once I started this book I would devour it in one sitting, and it would be an absolute pleasure to read, so I have been keeping it for a day when I knew I would savour every moment.  Today was that day.

I love Chris Riddell, as those of you who have been reading this blog regularly will probably know. I am a huge champion of his Ottoline books, and very pleased that they are finally being reissued now that Riddell has taken on the mantel of the Children’s Laureate for the next two years.  I love his picture books, and his collaborations with Paul Stewart, and his work with Neil Gaiman, and in fact pretty much anything he does.

The Goth Girl books are probably my favourite of his works so far, because I absolutely love all the jokes that work on so many levels and make them into books you read and enjoy whilst also feeling that you are part of the gang that ‘gets’ them. The witty stories are supported by Riddell’s superb illustrations that are so detailed they keep giving and giving the more you look at them. The footnotes, as ever, are joyous, and this time are penned by a ‘well-travelled Muscovy duck’. There is so much care in each story Riddell produces. Even the end papers with their Gothic foil design are exquisite, and there are always hidden extras in every book. In this case, the charming mini book tucked away in the back of the book which tells the story of Marylebone, Ada’s lady’s maid, who also happens to be a spectacled bear from Bolivia with a penchant for Bolivian honey.  There is of course, no similarity to her perhaps more famous counterpart, Paddington.

In this book, Ada Goth, daughter of Lord Goth, based on Byron, but in this case: ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to gnomes,’ is beginning to relish her position as his daughter, after the events of the first book forced him to come to terms with the death of his beloved wife and Ada’s mother, Parthenope and acknowledge Ada’s existence.

Lord Goth is on a tour of the Lake District, meeting his poet friends Wordsworthalot and Alfred Tennislesson.  While he is gone, Ada continues to take lessons in umbrella duelling from her governess, a 300 year old vampire called Lucy, and attends meetings of the Attic Club with the friends who helped her in her last adventure.  All this activity is shaken up by the arrival of Sidney Whimsey, a master of disguise, old friend of Lord Goth, and newly appointed organiser of the usually dull Full-Moon Fete.

This year things promise to be much more exciting, with Lord Whimsy organising an exhibition of paintings by famous artists like J.M.W. Turnip, a steam powered circus run by a family of vampires and a Bake Off competition with entries by the Hairy Hikers and Heston Harboil to name but a few.

Things are not exactly as they seem though, as Maltravers the surly indoor gamekeeper keeps disappearing in clouds of flour, Sidney keeps popping up in multifarious disguises and Ada and the Attic Club become embroiled in mystery once more.

I won’t begin to list the number of people Riddell pokes gentle fun at. There are too many and I don’t want to give away all the jokes, but I confess to chuckling my way through this book with absolute glee. I am sure there are names and puns and jokes that I missed, but as I will read this again and again I am sure that it will continue to yield new jokes and surprises as I do.  That’s part of the joy of it.

Having said that, even if you are sharing this with a child and they don’t get everything, it is still a wonderful, funny and clever story that works on so many levels they won’t feel they’re missing out, and hopefully, as they revisit it in future months and years it will yield up more and more with every re-reading.

Ideal for older children aged 7 and up, both boys and girls.

Ottoline at Sea by Chris Riddell: A Review

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book review, books for boys, books for girls, Chris Riddell, funny books, illustrated books, Mr. Munroe, Ottoline, Ottoline at Sea

Ottoline at Sea by Chris Riddell is the third and final book in the Ottoline series, of which the first two books are Ottoline and the Yellow Cat and Ottoline Goes to School.

My son read this to me last week, and was very sorry to have finished the series. His favourite character is the Norwegian bog creature, Mr. Munroe, who, luckily for my son, features rather heavily in this book.

Ottoline’s parents are away in Norway, trying to track down Quite Big Foot. Ottoline and Mr. Munroe are thinking of somewhere they might want to go exploring by themselves with the young roving adventurer’s pass that Ottoline’s parents have sent them. One day, Mr. Munroe finds a pair of bog goggles in Ottoline’s parents collection, and puts them on.

He is immediately haunted by visions of Quite Big Foot looking very unhappy, and knows that he has to go to Norway. He tries to persuade Ottoline but she is too busy to listen to him properly, and so Mr. Munroe sets off alone.

When Ottoline realises Mr. Munroe has gone, she is devastated, and immediately sets off to find him, aided by the bear who lives in the basement, and Mrs. Pasternak and her pet monkey.

This is a wonderful story, full of humour and jokes, which really comes alive with the splendid illustrations by Riddell.

Each book has a little something tucked away in the end papers. In the first one it is a series of postcards from Ottoline’s parents travels, in this book it is a pair of Norwegian  bog goggles, which when the reader wears them, allows the reader to see what Mr. Munroe can see.

This was the only disappointing part of the book for us. It was very hard to see the hidden illustrations properly and in the end even Oscar gave up and we just guessed. It didn’t stop the story being fun, but it was a little frustrating.

A wonderful book for transitional readers and lovers of whimsy. Suitable for boys and girls aged seven and up as readers and younger children who you might want to read to.

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books for girls, Chris Riddell, funny books, Ottoline Goes to School

My son finished reading Ottoline Goes to School by Chris Riddell last week. It’s the sequel to Ottoline and the Yellow Cat which he loved and sped through in a couple of days. He felt much the same about this one.

In this book, Ottoline meets a girl called Cecily in the park near her home. Cecily is a difficult child, but Ottoline, who doesn’t really have any friends of her own age, is drawn to her, and when Cecily announces she is off to boarding school, Ottoline and Mr. Munroe, her hairy friend rescued from the bogs of Norway by her parents, go too.

Ottoline and Cecily go to the Alice B. Smith School for the Differently Gifted, and meet the Sultana of Pahang, the son of the invisible man and all sorts of other strange children, all of whom already know what their great gift in life is.  Ottoline is desperate to find out what her gift is, and has a go at everything on the Alice B. Smith curriculum as the book progresses, including plate spinning and aerial flower arranging.

In the meantime, there are strange and ghostly goings on at the school and Ottoline and Mr. Munroe attempt to unravel the mystery.

This has all the charm of the original book, and the humour. There are lots of nice touches to the illustrations including all the notation by Riddell, and a ghost hunt that your child can rediscover the book with after reading it.

Perfect for children aged 7-12. It would be great for transitional readers, but work equally well for fans of Riddell and authors like Lauren Child. I’ve had a good success rate with children who have finished all Lauren Child’s Clarice Bean and Ruby Redfort novels, getting them to try Ottoline.

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell: A Review

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book review, books for boys, books for girls, books for older readers, Chris Riddell, funny books, Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, transitional books

Regular readers will be well aware of my enduring love for Chris Riddell, both as an author and an illustrator.

His most famous work is probably alongside Paul Stewart as the co-author of The Edge Chronicles, but his work ranges far and wide, and some of my favourites of his books are the Ottoline series. Published in the same format as his award winning Goth Girl series, but published much earlier on in his writing career, there are three books, of which Ottoline and the Yellow Cat is the first.

My son recently finished reading the Timmy Failure books and needed something new to read for school. He was feeling rather dispirited and out of inspiration, so I suggested he might want to try Ottoline and the Yellow Cat. Initially he was quite disparaging of the idea, but he changed his mind about ten pages in, and has read the entire book in two days. He is now starting on the sequel.

The books are A5 sized, and nice and chunky to fit a child’s hand. They are full of amazingly detailed drawings by Riddell, many of which are annotated and hold clues, jokes and even sometimes sub plots of their own.

Ottoline is a resourceful and independent child. She has to be, as her parents are world renowned explorers, and are often away on trips. While they travel, they leave Ottoline in the capable hands of dozens of home help businesses including McBeans’ cleaning service and a professional pillow plumper. They also leave her with Mr. Munroe, a small, hairy creature they rescued from a damp bog in Norway, and who is Ottoline’s best friend in all the world. Mr. Munroe detests having his hair brushed and being wet. He eats only porridge and hot chocolate, and is not very good at keeping his room tidy, because bogs in Norway don’t really have rooms.

Ottoline, as well as collecting unusual things like her parents, is also good at solving mysteries.

In this story a spate of lap dog and jewel thefts is rippling through the neighbourhood, and Ottoline, with the help of Mr. Munroe and a large bear who lives in the basement and steals people’s washing, sets out to save the day.

The story is hugely quirky, very intriguing and has lots and lots of humour, both in the writing and the illustration. It is an absolute joy to read.

We recommend it to boys and girls aged 7-12.