Yuck's Robotic Bottom by Matt and Dave

Yuck's Robotic Bottom by Matt and Dave
Buy Yuck's Robotic Bottom by Matt and Dave at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A book which is going to appeal to the young male emerging reader. Recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 112	Date: October 2009
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books
ISBN: 978-1847382993
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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.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Yuck's Robotic Bottom by Matt and Dave 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 Yuck's Robotic Bottom by Matt and Dave at Amazon.com.

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