Dorko the Magnificent

Andrea Beaty's Dorko the Magnificent is a warm, very funny story for 10 year olds about a boy magician and the great-great-aunt who takes over his bedroom.

What happens

Robbie Darko talks straight at you from the first line. He's a magician, and magicians always talk to their audience, so that's that.

He wants to know what you call the moment after something happens but before anyone knows how to react. He knows that moment very well. It's the one just before he says "Ta-daaaa".

Last year's school talent show did not go well. There was a salamander called Sir Isaac Newt, a baseball cap, and a head teacher who turned out to be terrified of salamanders. Robbie has been Dorko ever since, thanks to Nate Watkins.

This year will be different. He's got a rabbit called Houdi and twenty-three and three quarter days to get ready. (He is definitely counting.)

First though there's his mum's birthday and the tablecloth trick. He explains exactly why he needs the heavy china. One reason is science, because the weight holds the plates down. The other is drama, because if it goes wrong there will be danger, and danger makes people pay attention.

He is completely right about both. He pulls the cloth perfectly.

Then he takes a bow, and stands up again, and that's where it all goes wrong.

What follows involves a water glass, a candle, a napkin, Uncle Pete, a burnt cake and a fire extinguisher. When the smoke clears, the only person still sitting at the table is Grandma Melvyn, who has never laughed at anything in her life, making a noise like a cross between an asthmatic goose and an insane pig.

Grandma Melvyn is the best thing in this book. She's about as tall as a mailbox. Her glasses make her eyes look like baseballs. She calls every single person Trixie. And she's waiting on an insurance company to pay for a knee operation, which means she's moving in. Into Robbie's room. Robbie goes back to a bunk bed in his six-year-old brother's room.

Underneath the jokes there's a family stretched thin. Dad's away travelling since he lost his good job, Mum's working long hours over a mountain of files, and Movie Night keeps getting cancelled. Robbie notices all of it and complains about none of it directly, which is how a lot of ten year olds do it.

If your reader has ever had their room taken over by somebody else's shoes, they will recognise the outrage exactly.

It's American, and Robbie's voice is broad and chatty, with asides to future film producers about where to add the explosions.

What to read next

For another child stuck with a difficult grandparent who turns out to be the best company in the house, there's Grandpa's Great Escape. Jack's grandpa has started forgetting things, and he has decided he's back in the RAF, and Jack is the only one who thinks playing along is a good idea.