You Me and Thing: The Dreaded Noodle-doodles by Karen McCombie
| You Me and Thing: The Dreaded Noodle-doodles by Karen McCombie | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: Silly and full of fun, another very readable adventure for Ruby, Jackson and the 'Thing' who lives at the bottom of the garden! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 144 | Date: January 2012 |
| Publisher: Faber and Faber | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0571272594 | |
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We first met Thing in You, Me and Thing: The Curse of the Jelly Babies where he caused rather a lot of chaos with a large number of jelly babies. He's back again, and this time he really, really wants to go to school with Ruby and Jackson... it can only end in disaster!
So, Thing needs to be smuggled into school which turns out to be a mission in itself since he gets travel sick in Ruby's bag! And of course, even once they get Thing into school they then have to keep him hidden away and under control, because if Thing gets angry then that's when the magic starts to happen, and Thing's magic is very unpredictable! There's plenty of silliness as Ruby and Jackson struggle just to get Thing into school, and then more magical mayhem with a rather mean dinner lady once they do get there!
Once again, this is a great read for confident readers aged around 8 or older. Told from Ruby's point of view it's very immediate and accessible with lots of dialogue and fun lists that keep the action moving along. I like Ruby as a narrator as she's well-intentioned and has Jackson operating as her disaster-prone side-kick. Thing is also rather endearing, continuing to speak like a small child, but I'm very glad my little girl hasn't discovered one at the bottom of our garden! Younger readers of infant school age would probably enjoy having this as a bedtime story read too as the action is very silly and easy to follow and the chapters aren't too long to read.
Once again the illustrations are provided by Alex T Smith, a favourite of mine, and they help the story along wonderfully. I particularly like one picture of Thing on top of Jackson's head trying to force Jackson's face into a frown as well as the picture of a hot and sweaty Ruby (she has Thing tucked up inside an unseasonably warm fleece) lining up to get her lunch from the mean dinner lady. All in all, a great fun read. Recommended!
In case you missed it, the first book of the series is You, Me and Thing: The Curse of the Jelly Babies. Readers may also enjoy Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross and The Odd Squad: King Karl by Michael Fry.
Karen McCombie's You, Me and Thing series in chronological order
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You can read more book reviews or buy You Me and Thing: The Dreaded Noodle-doodles by Karen McCombie at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy You Me and Thing: The Dreaded Noodle-doodles by Karen McCombie at Amazon.com.
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