Crummy Mummy and Me

Anne Fine's Crummy Mummy and Me is a very funny family story for 10 year olds, told by a girl who has to be the grown-up in her house.

What happens

Minna reckons her mum is hopeless at being a mum. Every morning it's the same. Minna is at the front door with her coat on and the baby strapped in the pushchair, while Mum is still upstairs hunting for her shoes.

Mum wears glittery legwarmers, lavender fishnets and safety-pin earrings. Her boyfriend is Crusher Maggot, who once won a punk hair competition and dyes his spikes a new colour every few weeks. Gran thinks they're both a disgrace (and she isn't shy about saying so).

So Minna nags. About fizzy drinks for the baby. About homework and clean socks and wholemeal bread. She's bossy, sensible and completely in charge, and it's hilarious.

It's a run of linked stories rather than one long plot. Mum dyes her hair royal blue and Gran stops speaking to her. The telly gets stolen, and the only witness is the baby. A dull drive in the country turns into a hunt for the thief.

The joke is that we see it all through Minna's very disapproving eyes. She tells you how dreadful everything is, and you can see perfectly well that her mum is loving and great fun. You'll probably end up laughing at both of them!

A couple of things to flag. In one story a stray dog gets run over by the car (Minna herself tells squeamish readers to skip that story, which is rather sweet). The grown-ups aren't exactly role models either. There's a thief, a police officer who winks at Mum, and the weekly cheque going on glittery clothes. It's all played for laughs, in a world of videos, punk hair and a milkman who chats on the doorstep.

If your reader has ever felt more sensible than the adults around them, they'll get it straight away.

What to read next

For more grown-ups seen through a sharp child's eyes, try Madame Doubtfire. Three children carry letters between parents who really can't stand each other, and their dad is very funny about it.