Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator)

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search


Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator)

0192742736.jpg
Buy Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator) at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Category: Confident Readers
Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Reviewed by John Lloyd
Summary: The fourth, and perhaps even the most silly and funny, book in this series – definitely high esteem indeed.
Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
Pages: 192 Date: July 2015
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780192742735

Share on: Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram



We've been here before. The lovely children whose name is in the title of all these books – handy when they make time to try and check if they're in this one or not – are woken up in a ridiculous way by a blackbird making his usual cameo. The Army of Great Kerfuffle is asleep – all single cat of it. The King is wearing a badge that allows him to pretend to not be the King – this time he's thinking of keeping bees, although he has four animals that go 'quack' in a hive instead. Oh yeah, and the evil badgers are in prison having been naughty. But they will never follow the pattern and be evil and naughty and break out in order to be eviller and more naughty, will they?

Books like these don't follow the pattern. They miss out what one of the lead characters call the best bits, they get letters of apology from the author mid-way through, people are aware of their fictionality and which chapter they're in, and more. And on this evidence they're ridiculously funny. And that's coming from a chap who's read the other three books, and found them more than worth the while – this one is definitely the best for absurdist humour, postmodern pranks and silliness.

Being so fond of breaking the rules, the creators don't mind introducing some of the funniest and best characters halfway along, or allowing the Ninja Librarian to come and go at will. The books don't bother with morals, and use their inventiveness as source of surprise rather than clever, articulate plotting. What they do from the outset is test the form, and the reader's laugh muscles, as they give the audience what they want.

Unless, that is, they want Ketchup-Face's song. She mentions the possibility, and then it passes. I haven't given one of these excellent books five stars yet – indeed I found the third a little too arch and abrupt to finish at times – but this one gets the rating, song or no song. Roll on the fifth, is what I say.

The series began here. We also have reviews of two other books in the series: Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Quest for the Magic Porcupine and Stinkbomb and Ketchup Face-and the Great Kerfuffle Christmas Kidnap.

Please share on: Facebook Facebook, Follow us on Twitter Twitter and Follow us on Instagram Instagram

Buy Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator) at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator) at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
Buy Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator) at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of Stupidity by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator) at Amazon.com.

Comments

Like to comment on this review?

Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.