Mysteries According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney
| Mysteries According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: Not the best adventure in this series, but the charming style and simple storytelling are still there in abundance. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 208 | Date: February 2012 |
| Publisher: Faber and Faber | |
| ISBN: 9780571255436 | |
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It's autumn term for Humphrey the Hamster, Og the Frog and the humans that use Room 26 of Longfellow School. In the run-up to Halloween things get a bit spooky and mysterious. Where has the usual teacher gone? And what is her replacement up to - he's certainly not teaching anyone anything with his fun japes. In this episode in the series Humphrey must help the clumsy child, the over-the-top flat-out lying child, and most of all work out why the teacher disappeared all of a sudden, leaving the classroom halfway through reading out a Sherlock Holmes adventure.
This is quite a typical Humphrey book. The FUN-FUN-FUN is still there, as our hero gets to leave his cage with the lock-that-doesn't-lock and head out into the wider world, on a mission to help people he loves or solve a mystery. It's just that after all the previous books we might be seeing a diminishing in returns.
For once, the way Humphrey helps the children out are obvious and too simplistic. That's true too of the main plot, where our hero is deluded into thinking the missing teacher has left the lovely class and become a ballet dancer. We can too easily figure out the truth. And whereas before the plot was an all-encompassing whole, here the fact the intrigue is part-inspired by a mystery story doesn't hang together, or get used well enough.
Also, for a book that is released in the UK in February, and which I'm rating in January, the hook of Halloween is a bit odd. It's not used much, and things I thought were going to be flaws - like the unusual vocab used in the initial lesson being a bit too American-sounding - weren't. There never are major flaws in books as charming, simple and uniform as these. But here I could definitely see a difference between my favourite instances of the series and this one. I would never say don't buy it, but perhaps consider it as a wine - lay it down for a season when your regular Humphrey books have been read to death. Perhaps then it might actually be Halloween...
I must thank the publishers for my review copy. We also have a review of My Pet Show Panic! (Humphrey's Tiny Tales) by Betty G Birney.
If you'd prefer to read of guinea pigs, we quite liked The Tales of Olga Da Polga by Michael Bond.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Mysteries According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney at Amazon.com.
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