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Old MacDonald Heard a Fart by Olaf Falafel

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There are many different book versions of Old MacDonald but you haven’t read one like this before.  Old MacDonald Heard a Fart is the stinkiest, funniest version of the song you’ve ever heard.

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As the title suggests this book is full of farts.  All of the usual animals on Old MacDonald’s farm are here but they’ve all got a serious case of wind.  Each animal makes a very distinct fart noise and Old MacDonald demonstrates how to make the sounds on each page.

Old MacDonald Heard a Fart is a picture book that is guaranteed to make kids laugh out loud.  I’ve read and sung it to the 5 and 6 year olds at my school and they were laughing the whole time.  They left the library making farting noises and I’m sure they went home to tell their parents all about it.  I am sure that this book will never stay on the shelf because the kids will be reading it again and again.  Olaf Falafel is going to have the Old MacDonald tune stuck on repeat in the heads of kids and adults.

It is Olaf Falafel’s illustrations that really make this book stand out for me.  They look quite similar to Axel Scheffler’s illustrations as he gives each of the animals some real personality.  The pig wears a tutu, the cow wears a Hawaiian shirt and the duck wears a boater hat.  The illustrations of Old MacDonald’s face at the bottom of the page are really helpful to figure out how to make the fart noises, especially when the kids want to make the noises.

Laugh and fart along with your kids as you read Old MacDonald Heard a Fart.  Later in the year you also have the festive Father Christmas Heard a Fart to look forward to.

The World’s Worst Children 2 by David Walliams and Tony Ross

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David Walliams has become one of those children’s authors who have reached the same level of anticipation by young readers as J.K. Rowling had at the height of the Harry Potter series.  Kids gobble up his books and can’t wait for his new books.  I had to make sure I got copies of his latest book, The World’s Worst Children 2, on release day so that I could have it in the library for excited readers.  It is certainly worth the wait for readers young and old.

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The World’s Worst Children 2 is David Walliams and Tony Ross’ second collection of cautionary tales featuring some of the worst, most horrid children ever.  There is Humbert the Hungry Baby who eats everything in sight and grows to be humongous,  Stacey Superstar who has an unforgettable voice, Fussy Frankie who hates anything healthy, Gruesome Griselda who loves playing disgusting tricks, and Competitive Colin who has to win everything no matter what it takes.  These children deserve everything that comes their way!

The characters in The World’s Worst Children 2 will make you laugh, cringe and shudder with horror.  You really wouldn’t want to meet these kids, let alone be their parents.  I enjoyed each of the stories but two really stood out for me.  The story of Harry Who Never, Ever Did His Homework was brilliant because of the ghosts of the greatest villains in history that turn up in his bedroom.  They have some really funny banter between them.  I also really enjoyed the story of Trish who slowly turns in to a troll with every horrible comment that she makes about the kids and teachers at her school.

It’s important to acknowledge Tony Ross’ contribution to The World’s Worst Children 2 because I don’t think it would be the same book without his wonderfully weird illustrations.  Tony Ross has always be great at bringing out the worst in people in his illustrations and he certainly does that in David Walliams’ books.  He has made each of the children featured in the book look absolutely horrid, especially Humbert and Trish.

We have one more volume of the World’s Worst Children to look forward to and I fear that they are going to be the worst yet!

Check out this book trailer showing each of the characters in the book:

Timmy Failure: The Cat Stole My Pants by Stephan Pastis

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I’m a huge Timmy Failure fan and I look forward to each new book.  The sixth book in Stephan Pastis’ hilarious series, The Cat Stole My Pants, has just been released and it’s another great addition to the series.

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The Cat Stole My Pants starts with a cat stealing Timmy’s pants (or so he believes) while visiting the house that was once home to Ernest Hemingway on the island of Key West. He has come on his mum and step-dad’s honeymoon, along with Doorman Dave’s nephew Emilio Empanada.  Since Timmy’s former business partner, Total, has taken off to Cuba, Timmy makes Emilio his unpaid intern.  The poor kid has to follow Timmy everywhere and be a part of Timmy’s crazy plans.  There is a treasure to be found, a best-seller to be written and a father to meet.  What could possibly go wrong?  Anything at all when it includes Timmy Failure.

You are always guaranteed a good laugh with each new Timmy Failure book.  I eagerly await the next installment just to see what crazy things Timmy gets up to next.  Timmy’s unusual outlook and funny way of talking gets me every time.  Stephan Pastis’ characters always make me laugh and there are some great new characters in this book.  Emilio Empanada gets the lucky job of being Timmy’s unpaid intern.  As you can imagine, Timmy doesn’t treat him very nicely but Emilio seems happy enough to hang around with him.  Emilio gets roped in to all sorts of schemes, from breaking in to a lighthouse to helping Timmy sell his book.  Emilio is a fan of romance novels and the names of some of these cracked me up – The Donkey’s Kiss is More Powerful than his Kick and Love is a Speckled Pony of Desire.  I also enjoyed the minor characters like Speedo Steve and Captain Largo Spargo.

The thing that I enjoyed the most about this book though was the book that Timmy wrote called Timmy Failure’s Wisdom-Filled Guide for the Uneducated People Who Don’t Know Very Much.  Included in his book are various scenarios involving a crime and possible answers.  These were so ridiculous that they were incredibly funny.

If you’re a Timmy Failure fan grab a copy of The Cat Stole My Pants now.  If you haven’t read a Timmy Failure book yet, what are you waiting for!

Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase by Peter Helliar

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What is your worst nightmare?  Trapped in a pit of snakes?  Trapped in a room full of clowns? Being forced to listen to Taylor Swift songs over and over?  Frankie Fish’s worst nightmare is being stuck in the past with his grumpy grandad.  He may hate it but it is certainly hilarious for readers of Peter Helliar’s new book, Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase.

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Twelve-year-old Frankie Fish hates visiting his grandparents. Grandad Fish is cranky, and yells a lot, and has a creepy hook for a hand – plus he NEVER lets Frankie go inside his shed. But after a teensy tiny prank goes wrong at school, Frankie is packed off to Old-People Jail for the whole holidays.

What Frankie doesn’t know is that Grandad has been building a home-made TIME MACHINE in the Forbidden Shed, and the old man has big plans to get his missing hand back. But when Grandad goes back in time, he changes history and accidentally wipes out Frankie’s entire family – Nanna, Mum, Dad, even his annoying sister Saint Lou. Somehow, everyone is gone but Frankie and Grandad! And it’s only a matter of time until Frankie disappears too…

As the last Fish men standing, Frankie and Granddad must race back in time to undo this terrible mistake. But can they stand each other long enough to put the past back together again? And even if they manage the impossible – will Grandad’s wonky time-machine ever get them home?

Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase is a wacky time-travel adventure with a cool new character.  There is something in this story for everyone – pranks, time travel, family secrets, a weird grandparent with a hook for a hand, magicians, strange transformations, the Water Tank of Death and plenty of laughs.  Peter Helliar’s other career as a comedian shines through in this book as he certainly knows what makes kids laugh.  Peter hooks you right from the start and makes you need to keep reading to find out what happens.  Like any good time travel story this one asks ‘if you could go back and your past would you do it?’

Frankie Fish is a character that kids, especially boys, are going to love.  Frankie is a mischievous kid who loves playing pranks with his friend Drew Bird.  When Frankie starts poking around in his grandad’s shed he finds himself stuck in a place and time unlike the one he knows, with his grumpy grandad.  Suddenly, Frankie is the sensible one who must keep his grandad on the right track and stop him from making even more of a mess of his life. Thanks to his grandad’s meddling Frankie finds himself changing more than he could ever imagine.

Lesley Vamos’ illustrations add some extra fun to the story, especially when there are several different grandad’s involved. The cover is fantastic and the title literally jumps off it.

It’s good to know that Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase is only the first book in a planned series featuring Frankie.  I certainly want to read more of Frankie and Alfie Fish’s adventures!

Spy Toys by Mark Powers

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When the world is in peril and villains are running amok who do you call?  James Bond? Alex Rider? The Ghostbusters?  No, you call the Spy Toys.  They’re a rag-tag group of toys whose faulty machinery makes them the perfect crime fighting team.  Dan, Arabella and Flax are the Spy Toys and their first mission, in Mark Powers’ new series, is to protect the prime minister’s son from the clutches of Rusty Flumptrunk.

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Dan is a teddy bear.  He’s made for hugging.  Aw, so cute, right? WRONG!  Dan’s so strong he can crush cars.  But what makes him a faulty toy could make him the perfect spy.

Together with a robot police rabbit and one seriously angry doll, Dan joins a top secret team designed to stop criminals in their tracks.  And just in time!  An evil elephant is planning to kidnap the prime minister’s son.

Spy Toys is a hilarious story filled with action, adventure and characters that kids and adults alike will love.  Every kid will wish that they had toys as cool as Dan, Arabella and Flax.  Once you start reading Spy Toys you won’t want to stop because it’s a really fun and clever read.

There are lots of toys that feature in the story and everything is made by the Snaztacular Ultrafun company.  Their toys aren’t just your average toy though.  They create teddy bears that hug you when you need a hug, footballs that return to you after kicking them and bikes that take you home if you are too tired to pedal.  Clearly Mark Powers needs to be working with toy companies to make these awesome toys.

I loved the characters in the story, from the Spy Toys themselves to Auntie Roz, the Spy Toys’ boss who doesn’t take any nonsense, to the villain of the story, Rusty Flumptrunk, a genetically engineered cereal company mascot who has turned to a life of crime.  My favourite characters though are the McBiff Triplets, the children of a circus strongman and strongwoman, who are sent to test the Spy Toys.  They are destructive toddlers with huge muscles and their fight with the Spy Toys is hilarious.

Tim Wesson’s cover and illustrations throughout the book are fantastic.  He makes the Spy Toys look so cool and tough, the kind of toys that nobody messes with.  I especially love his illustrations of Rusty Flumptrunk who looks absolutely nuts.

I am hooked on the Spy Toys and I can’t wait for their next adventure.  If the sneak peek at the end of the book, featuring a hedgehog villain called Professor Doomprickle, is anything to go by, Spy Toys is going to be my new favourite series.  I would especially  recommend Spy Toys for any fans of Aaron Blabey’s Bad Guys series.

Check out the awesome Spy Toys website for heaps of activities and info about the series – http://spytoysbooks.com.

Marge and the Pirate Baby by Isla Fisher

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Prepare yourselves for more fantastical adventures with your new favourite babysitter, Marge.  She’s back again in Marge and the Pirate Baby.

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Marge is back and exploring the neighbourhood with the kids! With some help from Jemima and Jake, can she stay in charge and keep ‘pirate’ baby Zara under control? And can the children make sure Marge behaves at Uncle Desmond and Annie’s wedding?  Anything can happen with Marge around!

I love Isla Fisher’s Marge stories.  Marge is bursting with energy, stories and surprises and you just never know what she’s going to get up to next.  Jemima and Jake always look forward to Marge turning up to look after them and I look forward to her visits too.  She brings joy and excitement in to the Button house and plenty of colour too (especially with her rainbow hair.  Eglantine Ceulemans’ illustrations are delightful and add some extra humour to the stories.

The Marge stories are perfect for reading aloud, especially for 7-9 year olds, and they will certainly have kids laughing.

AniMalcolm by David Baddiel

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Imagine that you are a kid that can’t stand animals of any kind.  You hate the smell of them, the way they eat their food, the way they look at you with their beady eyes and the sound that they make.  Your family love each and every type of animal though and you’re forced to live side-by-side with them.  Your worst nightmare would be to actually be an animal.  Now, imagine that you woke up one morning, not in your own bed, but in a mud puddle as a pig, or very low to the ground as a tortoise.  You would want to try anything you could to become human again.  This is exactly the situation that Malcolm finds himself in in David Baddiel’s laugh-out-loud new book, AniMalcolm.

y648Malcolm doesn’t like animals. Which is a problem because his family love them. Their house is full of pets. What the house is NOT full of is stuff Malcolm likes. Such as the laptop he wanted for his birthday.The only bright spot on the horizon is the Year Six school trip, which Malcolm never thought his parents would pay for. And yet there he is, on the bus, heading to… oh no. A farm. Over the next days, Malcolm changes. He learns a lot about animals. More, in many ways, than he would like. He learns what it’s really like to be an animal. A whole series of animals, in fact…It does make him think differently. And speak differently. And eat differently. And, um, smell differently. But will he end up the same as before? Because sometimes the hardest thing to become is… yourself.

AniMalcolm is a hilarious story about a boy who doesn’t like animals finding himself in a very strange situation.  He gets turned into an assortment of different animals and gets a completely different perspective of them.  Whether you love animals or hate them, this is a story for you.

The thing I love the most about AniMalcolm is the range of characters.  Each of the animals that Malcolm meets has a distinct personality.  There are the two tortoises, Benny and Bjornita who are always complaining about how fast everyone moves, three sheep who repeat each other called Dolly 1, Dolly 2 and Dolly 3, Ludwig the pig who can speak most of the ‘malanguages (animal languages) and Chinny the Argentinian Chinchilla.  The conversations between some of these characters made me crack up.

The wonderful Jim Field has illustrated this book, as well as David’s previous books.  Jim’s style of illustration perfectly suits David’s books.  He really brings David’s characters alive.  I especially love how he has made each of the animals that Malcolm turns into look like Malcolm’s human self.

AniMalcolm is perfect for any kid who loves funny stories, especially fans of David Walliams.  If you haven’t read any of David Baddiel’s books grab AniMalcolm and you’ll be hooked on his books.

Barking Mad by Tom E. Moffatt

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The Tom Fitzgibbon Award is a fantastic award given out by Storylines each year that helps to launch the careers of unpublished authors in New Zealand.  There have been some wonderful winners of this award, including Leonie Agnew (Super Finn) and Juliet Jacka (Night of the Perigee Moon), who have gone on to write more great books.  Tom E. Moffatt was the winner of the 2016 Tom Fitzgibbon Award with his book Barking Mad, and judging by this book, Tom has a very bright writing career ahead of him.  Barking Mad is absolutely hilarious!

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At first, Fingers refuses to believe that his Granddad has gone BARKING MAD! But what straight-thinking grownup goes around LICKING the postman, growling like a dog and chasing hospital security guards up trees? And when Fingers and his sister Sally discover a BIZARRE machine in Granddads workshop, mix-ups turn into MIND-SWAPPING madness one look at Granddads dog DaVinci is proof of that!

Barking Mad is a crazy, hilarious read that will have you laughing out loud.  As soon as I read the blurb I knew that this was going to be a book for me and I wasn’t disappointed.  Just the idea of a grandad swapping minds with his dog was enough to make me laugh.  You can just imagine how crazy and silly the story is going to be.  Just when you think the story couldn’t get any funnier, it does.  Can you imagine swapping bodies with your grandad, your sister, or your brother?  That’s probably too scary to even think about!

I really loved the characters in this book.  The main character is Finn Butterby, but everyone calls him Fingers, as in Butter Fingers, because he is quite clumsy.  When Finn gets told that he has to carry his grandfather’s very delicate mind-swapping invention you just know that something is going to go wrong.  I love the way that Tom portrays the grandad’s dog DaVinci too.  Because Finn’s grandad has swapped minds with his dog, DaVinci often acts quite human-like, like when they find him reading a newspaper.  Finn and his sister also mix up their names and start calling them DaVanddad and GraVinci.

There are lots of hilarious and often embarrassing situations in the book but my favourite part is the rescue/escape from the dog pound.  I know that this is one part that will make kids crack up.  Barking Mad is perfect for anyone aged 8+ who loves funny stories, especially for Andy Griffiths fans who are looking for something new.  I can’t wait to read what Tom writes next!

Timmy Failure: The Book You’re Not Supposed to Have by Stephan Pastis

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I am a huge Timmy Failure fan!  He is one of those characters that I find both funny and annoying.  I love his determination and his strive for ‘Greatness.’  Timmy’s mum doesn’t like him doing his detective work because Timmy always ends up in trouble, but Timmy will stop at nothing to keep his business going.  In Timmy’s latest adventure, The Book You’re Not Supposed to Have, his mum has banned him from detective work but Timmy finds a way to continue behind his mum’s back, with hilarious results.

1469487534649The only thing you need to know about Timmy’s latest memoir is that it was never meant for publication. Timmy’s detective log was stolen, and if this book gets out, Timmy will be grounded for life. Or maybe even longer. Because while Timmy was meant to be focusing on schoolwork, he was continuing his detective work in a garden shed. You don’t need the details. Just know this: there’s a Merry, a Larry, a missing tooth and a disappearing friend. But don’t tell Timmy’s mother!

The Book You’re Not Supposed to Have is Timmy Failure at his finest.  It is full of Timmy’s silly antics that will make you laugh out loud.  His latest case involves the possible kidnap of his best friend Rollo Tookus and there are plenty of suspects, from his piano teacher Ms. Hardie-Heeron to his cousin Larry.  Timmy Failure always solves the case, even if it takes him a lot longer than it should.

One of the things I love the most about the Timmy Failure books is the characters.  There are some great new characters in this story as well as old favourites that always make me laugh.  In this story, Timmy’s cousins Larry and Merry (or Merry Nightmare Before Christmas as he calls her) come to stay at his house and take over his bedroom.  Timmy makes them out to be horrible, weird people but of course they’re not.  Poor Ms. Hardie-Heeron (great name) is Timmy’s piano teacher, who puts up with a lot from Timmy.  Probably my favourite character in this story is Toots, Timmy’s substitute teacher who sits down the back of the class and eats jellybeans by the handful.  The ever-entertaining Molly Moskins is back again, trying to help Timmy solve his case.

If you’re a fan of Timmy Failure you must get your hands on this book (even if the title suggests you’re not supposed to have it).  I certainly can’t wait for the next Timmy Failure book.  The Timmy Failure books are perfect for fans of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Tom Gates and Big Nate, as they are a great blend of text and cartoons.

Marge in Charge by Isla Fisher

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Everyone loves a good story about a cool babysitter or nanny, like Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee or Nanny Piggins.  Now there is a new character to add to that list, the larger-than-life Marge.  Jake and Jemima’s life becomes incredibly exciting when Marge arrives.

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Meet Marge, the mischievous babysitter with rainbow hair who loves to make a mess and bend the rules . . . At dinnertime Chef Marge cooks up chocolate soup, and at school Marge the Muscian conducts a chaotic concert in the playground!

Jake and Jemima have brilliant fun with their new babysitter, but will they manage to tick off all the jobs on Mummy’s list?

Marge in Charge is a hilarious, entertaining collection of stories about the magic that Marge brings to Jake and Jemima’s life. Isla Fisher’s stories about Marge will have children laughing out loud and wishing they had a babysitter who was this much fun.

Jemima and Jake don’t think that Marge is going to be any fun, especially when she turns up at their house looking like a strict old lady.  They have no idea of the adventures that await them.  Marge has so many stories to share and you’re never quite sure which are real and which ones she’s made up. Marge brings out the fun in any situation and makes everything better, from birthday parties to school.  It’s not only Jemima and Jake that fall in love with Marge, all the other kids at school want her as their babysitter too.  There are three stories in this first collection and I certainly hope there will be more stories to look forward to.

Marge in Charge is a perfect read-aloud to share with a class or snuggled up with your kids.  Kids aged 6-10 especially will love Marge and her crazy antics.  The book is illustrated throughout by Eglantine Ceulemans delightful illustrations.  She makes Marge’s larger than life character jump off the page.

Check out this video of Isla Fisher introducing the series: