Daisy and the Trouble with Jack

Kes Gray's Daisy and the Trouble with Jack is a funny school story for 5 year olds told by two children who cannot agree about anything.

What happens

Daisy's version. The trouble with boys is they are so immature. Jack Beechwhistle is about two. Well, he acts about two. He keeps telling everyone at school that he's a secret agent, which is silly, because if he's a secret agent how come he can't keep it a secret?

Jack's version. The trouble with girls is they are soft in the head. Daisy Butters says she's going to be prime minister or an ice-cream man. Or BOTH. Which is a national security risk, obviously, because a sniper could take the prime minister out through the ice-cream van window.

That is the whole book and it's lovely. You get Daisy's account, then Jack's account of Daisy's account, and both of them are completely certain they are the wronged party.

Today's trouble starts with wolves. Jack says he was brought up by them. Harry and Colin back him up, then announce they were too. Daisy says prove it, so Jack howls.

He howls at the exact moment Mrs Peters walks in to take the register.

Then they point at each other, neither of them stops talking, and Mrs Peters does the worst thing she can think of. She makes them swap seats and sit together.

The repeated trouble with line does a lot of the work and children pick it up very quickly. So do the CAPITALS, which land on the words a five year old would shout anyway.

Daisy has a proper grudge to nurse as well. She has seen Jack's bottom, cross her heart, from the time her fishing maggots ended up in his pants on the river. (He says she fired them at him. She says it was a magapult, which is different.)

What to read next

If your reader finishes it on Jack's side, and plenty will, Jack Beechwhistle's own book is in the library too. He introduces himself there as Junior Defender of the World and explains that his front door only looks red.