Borgon the Axeboy 3 – Borgon the Axeboy and the Whispering Temple

Kjartan Poskitt's Borgon the Axeboy and the Whispering Temple is the third Borgon adventure, a daft desert romp for 8 year olds starring a barbarian boy who isn't scared of anything.

What happens

Borgon lives among the caves of the Lost Desert, with his friends Grizzy, Mungoid and Hunjah close by. One morning, exploring an old ruined temple, he grabs a bright blue rattlesnake off a window ledge. He wants to keep it as a pet.

Hunjah is horrified. His mum used to be a priestess here. He says the snake guards the temple for its god, the Great Conk. Grizzy says there's no such thing. Then a black cloud rolls over, and the rain falls on Borgon and nobody else.

The argument that follows is one of the best bits. Grizzy reads out how rain is made from her Book of All Things. The boys decide flying water is ridiculous. Surely it's much more likely that the cloud is a god's big dripping nose? (It is quite nose-shaped.)

Sheltering from the storm, they follow a tunnel into the back of the temple. That's where they realise they're standing inside the giant stone head of the Great Conk. More precisely, inside his nose. "Oh gross!" says Grizzy, and your reader will probably agree.

Then a gold coin falls out of Hunjah's hat, and the trouble really starts. Borgon's mum wants to spend it on peaches. His dad, who has just scoffed an entire hippo by himself, forbids it. Money always brings trouble, he says.

It's very silly and very quick, full of YARGHHH! and KABLOOSH! and savages who argue about absolutely everything. Borgon charges at every danger with his axe but has a soft spot too. He ends up picking thorns out of the snake and naming it Bootlace.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Lunch is a big wobbly hippo liver, and Borgon cheerfully threatens to slice the snake into bootlaces. It's all played for laughs.

Does your reader like their jokes loud and a little bit gross? Then this is a great pick.

What to read next

Borgon's first outing is the Dangerous Breakfast. Borgon gets up early to surprise his parents with a real barbarian breakfast, and it's still twitching.