AniMalcolm

Product Information

When I was offered the chance to review AniMalcolm by David Baddiel, a book focused on animals and humour, it sounded right up his street and I jumped at the chance, hoping he would start to enjoy reading again. The path of the story is an obvious one, but I loved how Baddiel takes Malcolm through various incarnations and lives, and gets the whole farm involved in the final push to get him where he needs to end up.

AniMalcolm | Summer Reading Challenge AniMalcolm | Summer Reading Challenge

But from there it was onwards and upwards, with Baddiel pulling in the crowds with his stand-up, filming The Mary Whitehouse Experience at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and having “one of the best performance experiences I’ve ever had” with Frank Skinner in Unplanned.I skipped ahead and read it in two sittings and I have to say it completely won me over and I know M is going to love everything that is coming up in the story. He is the author of three previous novels for adults, but The Parent Agency is his first book for children. This is quite a meaty book to hold so there will be a sense of achievement in completing this book, however it's incredibly manageable for an average/confident reader. Baddiel became a cabaret stand-up comedian after leaving university and also wrote sketches and jokes for various radio series. The language and words used also targets its audience brilliantly making it an easy read for 8 – 11-year-olds.

AniMalcolm by David Baddiel: A Book Review - Burnished Chaos AniMalcolm by David Baddiel: A Book Review - Burnished Chaos

These could be written instructions, a radio report or a video tutorial that could be posted online. A whole world opens up to him, and I laughed quite hard that he had to keep repeating the story over and over again, and had to ask for witnesses (the animals he was previous with). Slapstick humour, complex vocabulary and incidental black-and-white illustrations ensure this story will appeal to confident young readers. Having heard David Baddiel describing his idea for this book at last year's Oxford Literary festival, this was an essential bedtime read for my daughter.Almost all of the book is from Malcolm's POV, but we also see his Mum and the teacher's POV, I quite liked that those POVs were also added. Malcolm is the only member of his family not to love animals (possibly due to an unpleasant experience with a monkey and its poo on a day out at the zoo), until a meeting with a mystic goat on the year six trip turns him into a series of different creatures, including tortoise, cat and pig.

David Baddiel Collection 8 Books Set (The Boy Who Got

He begs his parents to pay for the end-of-year school trip, only to discover, to his horror, that it’s to a farm.Felt maybe the book was a little long as the middle got a little repetitive, but it soon pepped up the humour and good story. So I was very intrigued to see whether his humour that has clearly resonated with me as an adult would have the same impact on my boys. It was funny in places, a bit gruesome in others and a little sad at times but there was a happy ending so all is good! It encouraged my daughter to read more and more as she was eager to see whether he would stay as a animal or become human. His first television appearance came in a bit-part on one episode of the showbiz satire, Filthy, Rich and Catflap.