Read Alvin Ho: Allergic to the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace, and Other Tourist Attractions free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Lenore Look's Allergic to the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace, and Other Tourist Attractions is a funny travel story for 6 year olds about a boy who's scared of almost everything and is about to fly to the other side of the world.
Alvin Ho is frightened of emergency exits, recycled air, strangers and small spaces full of strangers. So sixteen hours on a plane to China is NOT his idea of a holiday. His family are off to Beijing to show his brand-new baby sister to the relatives.
He gets ready the only way he knows how. He packs his Personal Disaster Kit and wears every single one of his clothes at once (it leaves room in the suitcase for souvenir sweets). Can you guess how that goes at airport security?
It's very much a trip inside Alvin's head. Everything is a disaster waiting to happen and he tells you all about it. The plane is a flying drink can full of germs. The breakfast in Beijing is noodles, dumplings and soup, which to Alvin is dinner at completely the wrong time of day. When he's really frightened his voice just disappears, and his cousin Bean Sprout hands out bright orange hats so nobody gets lost.
Then there's the Great Wall. Alvin doesn't see a wall at all. He sees a DRAGON with its tail snaking over the mountains, and he's standing on its back!
His dad is lovely company too. He swears in Shakespeare when he's stressed and scoops Alvin up after a bad dream on the first night.
One thing for nervous flyers. Alvin's jokes about planes are pretty dark (his view is that you get on and then you die). Most children will find that hilarious, but a child with a flight coming up might want to read it after the trip.
It's not only jokes, though. Halfway through, Alvin has something he really should own up to, and he can't make the words come out. You'll squirm right along with him.
If you've got a reader who worries a lot, it might be very reassuring to laugh at someone who worries even more.
If they want to see where the worrying started, Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things is the first Alvin Ho book and it's in the library too. It opens on his list of fears and the start of second grade, when Alvin still hasn't said a single word at school.
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