Book – Mr Stink

Author – David Walliams

Year – 2009
Genre – Children’s Humour
Pages – 267

So, this is the first book that I am reading in this challenge, and it has been recommended to me by Vikki.  I know of David Walliams from Little Britain and Britain’s Got Talent, but was quite unconvinced that he would be able to write a quality children’s book.  However, as the illustrations come from long-time friend of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, I was willing to give it a try.

Chloe does not have the happiest of lives.  Her bossy mother dotes on her sister, but pretty much ignores her, her Dad is powerless to argue against her Mum, and at school she has to deal with bullies making her life a misery.  However, she is a good person and takes the time to speak to a local homeless man, christened Mr Stink by the locals because of how he smells.  Could he help to change her life around for the better?

I admitted that I was worried about how good this book would be when I started to read it.  Well I am happy to announce that by the time I had finished it, I loved it!  It has all of the same humour that you would find in a Roald Dahl book, with little asides to the reader, and even some graphs.  The story is as lovely as it is ridiculous and the illustrations provided by Quentin Blake make it feel like a classic of children’s literature already.

There is no denying that this book is aimed at children, and I would be amazed if any child were to read it and not love it (no pressure Vikki) but despite being (a couple of years) older than the target market, I found that I loved it, and for the second half, could not put it down until I had finished it.  If you grew up reading the books of Dahl, and loved The BFG, Matilda, and The Twits, then you could do far worse than to give this book a read to be reassured that books of that quality are still being produced.

9/10

Mr Freeman - 1

Team 7.1 - 0