Changes

|title=The Diary of Dennis the Menace: Rollercoaster Riot

|sort=Diary of Dennis the Menace: Rollercoaster Riot, The

|publisher=Puffin

|date=August 2014

|summary=Some might say this is a lesser entry to this series, especially as the first was quite clever in justifying itself. I'd disagree – this is slight, but still good fun.

}}

Beanoland, Beanotown, is going to be the home of the world's most extreme rollercoaster, the Vomit Comet, and as he's a fan of all things extreme, scary and menacing, Dennis the Menace is determined to brighten up his current school term with an early ride on it. By an act of subterfuge during his latest detention he finds out the school is holding a competition to win the prize of being first in line at its grand opening. Surely this has Dennis's name all over it? Well, he thinks so – but then he doesn't yet know what he has to do to win the contest…

That chattiness and the exuberance of the character get you through the pages very quickly, just as before. But where I might have expected this book to be inferior to the initial one for having a weaker, smaller plot to it, I enjoyed it much the same. It drops a little of the moralising, which also helps you forget how unlikely this book's existence actually is, given Dennis's hobbies. We get fewer tips regarding those, and a straighter narrative about him putting them to use for one end – and an amusing section where it doesn't all go right for him at all. We close with adverts for many other books, including the fourth in this series, which are hitting us every six months, and a photo of our author that proves he's about twelve. It's fun to see him put his talents to such use just as much as his lead character does.

[[The Diary of Dennis the Menace by Steven Butler|Book one]] was where it all began. I guess Dennis is the sort of person who picks on the main character of [[Danger Is Everywhere: A Handbook for Avoiding Danger by David O'Doherty and Chris Judge]] so. Readers of both should enjoy the other to some extent.