Nina Worm

Thimble Monkey Superstar

Jon Blake (illustrated by Martin Chatterton)

Firefly Press

Review by Nina Worm

Thimble Monkey Superstar is hilarious. It’s a book I enjoyed very much and one with an unusual and weird story. Jams and his family answer the door one day to their neighbours who ask if they will look after their guinea pig. Except it’s not a guinea pig; it’s a monkey. Daddy says this kind of weird is called ‘surreal’. Straight away, Jams’ dad doesn’t like Thimble the monkey and tries all sorts of ways to get rid of him – with no luck!

The funniest moment was when a plastic box with pooey pants inside got confused for Mum’s sandwiches. Disgusting, but really funny. Jon Blake writes these funny stories amazingly well – but what I found most interesting was that the dad in the story is an author, just like Jon Blake. I found this inspiring and wondered how many other similarities there were.

The illustrations by Martin Chatterton are astonishing – I cannot believe they are actually drawn – wow!

Thimble Monkey Superstar is nominated for the Laugh Out Loud Award 2017 (The Lollies). There is no doubt that I found the book extremely funny – I’m going to read Future Ratboy next before I decide on my vote. If you want to vote for Thimble Monkey Superstar, click here.

Daddy Worm says: This is a truly engaging book, full of hilarious slapstick episodes which invariably end with egg on Dad’s face. Thimble continually gets the upper hand and Dad is left cursing each time. As a newly independent reader, Nina thoroughly enjoyed this book; Martin Chatterton’s fabulous illustrations break up the writing which is divided into manageable chapters. She read it in about 8 days and is keen to hear of more adventures from Thimble (Thimble Holiday Havoc is coming by the end of the year).

 

Nina has been provided with the Laugh Out Loud Shortlist for ages 6-8 in return for honest reviews. You can buy Thimble Monkey Superstar from your local independent bookshop or direct from Firefly Press.

Grace Ella: Spells for Beginners

Sharon Marie Jones

Illustrated by Adriana J Puglisi

Dragonfly

Reviewed by Nina Worm

Grace-Ella is a super amazing and very imaginative book. It is full of fun and I really loved it. Grace-Ella finds out that she is a witch and she starts to learn how to do lots of spells properly. I would love to be able to do magic spells – I’d especially like to be able to fly so that I can get away more quickly in a game of tag!

Grace-Ella has some good friends in the book, Bedwyr and Fflur, and they share Grace-Ella’s adventures. My favourite part of the book was when the friends were getting ready for the Halloween party and Grace-Ella was using her magic to make everyone’s costumes extra realistic. Unfortunately, Amelia is also in the book. She is a nasty, sneaky, boastful, show-off bully who does unkind things and never ever gets caught. But you’ll be glad to know that she does get what she deserves in the end!

I think this book would be great for Year 2 and up and there definitely needs to be more books about Grace-Ella. Maybe – Grace-Ella: Spells for Juniors?

Daddy Worm says: There’s not a lot I can add to Nina’s review – as you can tell she really enjoyed it and was uber-keen to read. The short chapters interspersed with a few illustrations by Adriana Puglisi really encouraged her to read on her own with a lot of success. She has also now started to read short passages in her head – so thank you Sharon Marie Jones for the encouragement, and we look forward to more magical adventures in the future.

St David’s Day is Cancelled

Wendy White

Gwasg Gomer

Reviewed by Nina Worm

This is an awesome, very funny book about my favourite time of the year – St. David’s Day. I can’t imagine what would happen if St. David’s Day was cancelled in my school – but that’s exactly what happens in this book.

Seren Wen is in charge of her school newspaper team and they find out that Mrs Right, the headteacher is going to cancel the special day. Should they try and make her change her mind? Or do they need to come up with a different plan?
My favourite characters in the book are Sir and Rev. Right. Sir is very greedy and will eat anything – with funny consequences; and Rev. Right makes all the children giggle because he has a set of false teeth that fall out when he gets excited!

I recommend this book to children in Year 2, 3 and 4 – the illustrations by Huw Aaron are really good too. St David’s Day is Cancelled is now my most favourite book (before this it was Mr Cleghorn’s Seal by Judith Kerr).

Daddy Worm says: Nina thoroughly enjoyed this delightfully entertaining Welsh-centric tale. It spoke to her directly with 2 of her most favourite things – school and St. David’s Day. It’s an engaging and humorous story that she treasured reading. Descriptions of characters are very amusing – particularly Rev. Right (I could hear the groans when it was announced that the dismal reverend would be giving a special talk on the history of Wales instead of the St. David’s Day concert). I’m convinced she’ll be asking to re-read this again very soon.

 

A copy of St David’s Day is Cancelled was provided by Gwasg Gomer in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect

Nicola Davies & Cathy Fisher

Graffeg

Reviewed by Nina Worm (aged 8)

A gentle yet sad story about a boy who has a disabled sister. He is upset because his new baby sister cannot run and chase, something he was looking forward to most. However, when a swift drops from the sky, he learned that all it needed was a little help to fly again. So he also helped his little sister and learned to love her.

Nicola Davies does not use many words – it is an easy read – she is very good at animal books and writes expertly about the swifts in this story. Cathy Fisher’s illustration are astonishingly realistic and just ‘perfect’ – so perfect that they have been nominated for this year’s Kate Greenaway Medal.

In my opinion Perfect is a book so beautiful it could make you cry. It is now one of my favourite books by a favourite author – perfect for 7 and 8 year olds.

Daddy Worm says: This is a beautifully produced hardback book – the illustrations and words are in perfect harmony as they work together to reflect the feelings of the brother so well. The result is that the reader can sense the emotion oozing from each lovingly crafted page; children will be able to relate to the boy and be encouraged to empathise with his situation.