Mellow Mummy: Children's Book Review :: Prankenstein : Taking life as it comes...

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Children's Book Review :: Prankenstein

Lara and I have been getting into the Halloween spirit with a bit of light hearted bedtime reading.  These days Lara and I share the bedtime reading and with a book like Prankenstein by Andy Seed, Lara and I take it in turns to read one page each - it is a book for slightly older readers than Lara but she is the perfect age to start enjoying the comedy in the story.



Prankenstein is a story about a young boy, Soapy whose life suddenly seems to be full of tricks and pranks being played.  It all starts when a massive hole appears in the ceiling of the house where Soapy's gran lives and he finds that his grandmother has been rocketed into the sky!

Soapy and his two Estonian friends (the Twince) start investigating the series of very silly tricks such as exploding breakfasts and ink in the shower gel.  Tricks even start happening at school.

Eventually Soapy discovers a fairy hairy source of all the pranks!  Prankenstein is fill full of silly tricks (hmmm, perhaps a few too many ideas in here!) and over-the-top illustrations that make them seem more hilarious to kids than they really are.  The black and white illustrations by Richard Morgan all have a slightly dark side which make them look gruesome when in fact they depict the most memorable and active parts of the story and help to bring it alive.



When we first started reading Prankenstein, Lara though from the cover image and illustrations that it was going to be scary but very quickly she realised that actually it is a very fun and silly book.  It is a slightly more mature level of humour than she is used to (it reminded me a bit of Horrid Henry in comedy style) and she very much enjoyed it.

Prankenstein is published by Fat Fox Books in paperback.  I would recommend it for reading to a 5 year old upwards or for self-reading from about 6-10 years old.

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