View source for Yuck's Robotic Bottom by Matt and Dave

{{infobox 
|title= Yuck's Robotic Bottom
|author= Matt and Dave
|reviewer= Sue Magee
|genre=Confident Readers 
|summary= A book which is going to appeal to the young male emerging reader.  Recommended.
|rating=4 
|buy= Yes
|borrow= Yes
|format= Paperback
|pages=112 
|publisher= Simon and Schuster Children's Books
|date= October 2009
|isbn=978-1847382993 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk> 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1847382991</amazonus> 
|sort=Yuck's Robotic Bottom
}}

It's concerned me for a while that it's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toys, mermaids and pets abound – but there's a much smaller choice for boys.  It's important too with early readers that the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' to do at school and moves into being fun.  Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.

For those of you who don't know, Yuck is a laddish boy, brighter than others suspect and with an irrepressible sense of fun.  There's not a bit of malice in him and I'm probably not the only one who will think of Dennis the Menace when they look at pictures of him.  In this book there are two stories (each just the right length to give oodles of confidence to those just beginning to read without being too much to cope with) – Yuck's Robotic Bottom and Yuck's Wild Weekend.

They're full of the sort of things that young boys love – smelly underpants, whiffy socks, dog poo, curdled milk, pongy cheese and sisters who get their comeuppance.  There are names they'll love such as Mrs Wagon the Dragon and Mrs Appliance from the science museum.  Quite a lot of vocabulary is going to be absorbed as painlessly as possible.

Pictures – yes there are pictures.  I don't think there's a double page spread without a zany illustration.  They're interesting in themselves, break up the text so that it isn't ''too'' daunting for the young reader and there are some hints in there as to what one or two of the longer words might be.

It's a book to buy as it's going to appeal to a young boy's sense of humour and there's nothing in there that will date it to the point where it can't be passed on to a younger brother in due course.  Girls will probably want to look the other way!

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Slightly more confident readers – both boys and girls – will enjoy [[What's For Dinner, Mr Gum? by Andy Stanton]] and if you're looking for a Christmas story for this age group then we can recommend [[Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog by Jeremy Strong]].

{{amazontext|amazon=1847382991}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=6490484}}

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