Frankie Best Hates Quests is a love letter to the great sci-fi/fantasy epic novels, especially Tolkien. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Our mission is to inspire children to feel they can be and do anything, and to create readers for life.

From the incredible imagination of Chris Smith – bestselling author and now a major new solo talent – comes an extraordinary accidental adventure for fans of Cressida Cowell and Pixar’s Onward. Not only is she stuck at Grandad’s for a whole week while her parents swan off to the arctic, now she’s discovered that there’s NO WIFI anywhere in the house! But Frankie's eyes are opened by a completely different world which leads to a massive adventure where they meet a vast mix of creatures and characters.We’ve re-named Puffin Virtually Live so that it’s easier for new teachers to discover it as part of Puffin Schools and to acknowledge that the show now premieres on show day, rather than being streamed live.

Frankie did have big plans to watch YouTube and eat pot noodles that weekend but it looks like she'll just have to go on an epic mega-dangerous quest instead. It's also a really good fantasy in it's own right, with fun, interesting world-building, some original ideas and good characters. Heroes perpetually leap from frying pan to fire and there is even a chapter entitled ‘There and Back Again’.Smith even cites the rules of the genre explicitly to readers, reminding them, for example, that every villain has a whole in their plan. no, that is not spelt incorrectly) Forcing Frankie to embark on a rescue mission across a magical realm. When Grandad is kidnapped by a host of gnoblins (no that is not spelt incorrectly) it falls to Frankie and Joel to save the day.

This is unbearable news for Frankie, who is forced to accept – when Grandad is kidnapped – that she is just going to have to go on a big quest with lots of silly fantasy creatures.One of my grandsons, 9 years old and slightly dyslexic, was in need of something to capture his imagination which would help with his reading. I absolutely adored the subtle Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit nods scattered throughout the book specially the “second breakfast”. Things get worse for Frankie as soon as they arrive and she realises there’s no phone signal and grandad has no wi-fi! Joel – Frankie’s annoying nerd brother who spends all his time playing computer games like Elf-Quest and just generally being really super annoying. The relationship between Frankie and her geeky younger brother Joel is drawn in a believable way, I believed in Frankie as being someone into YouTube and modern life and I liked the humour that peppers the text (which Anderson's illustrations really help to draw out).

I mean, I get that she is a teen, but seriously, I know plenty of teens who aren't 24/7 grumps and I can remember that even with everything I wasn't perpetually grump either. To have any chance of rescuing her grandfather, Frankie has to get up to speed, quickly, with all the rules and lore of the genre (luckily, Joel is usually on hand to help, in a very annoying way). From the incredible imagination of Chris Smith - bestselling author and now a major new solo talent - comes an extraordinary accidental adventure for fans of Cressida Cowell and Pixar's Onward. The content and ambition of the show remains the same: to give every pupil the opportunity to engage with authors and illustrators in their own classroom using the power of the internet.Instead they end up at Grandad's house and Granda is a bit unique, they have been kept away for a while and can't really remember why. Frankie is twelve and all teen angst, glued to her phone, her brother is a geek and this cannot be happening. I really loved seeing the progression from all of the characters and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. From the incredible imagination of Chris Smith - bestselling author and now a major new solo talent - comes an extraordinary accidental adventure for fans of Cressida Cowell and Pixar's Onward .