George Brown, Class Clown 12 – Lice Check

Nancy Krulik's Lice Check is a funny school story for 6 year olds about nits, a very silly bet and a burp that just won't behave.

What happens

This is the twelfth George Brown, Class Clown book. Head lice are marching through George's school and half his class are scratching. Reading it might make your own head itch (you have been warned).

Then Career Day comes along. George's dad is a sergeant in the army and Louie's dad is a lawyer, and the two boys bet on whose dad will get more visitors. If George loses, Louie gets his treasured skeleton ring. If he wins, he gets Louie's trainers with pop-out wheels.

George's big secret is his magic super burp. When it bubbles up it takes over his arms, legs and mouth, and George is always the one who ends up in trouble. Only his best friend Alex knows the truth.

This time it strikes in the lice-check queue, halfway up an army obstacle course and in the dentist's chair at Alex's mum's surgery. The punishments are brilliant. Who else has had to clean up a mess with a toothbrush? George has to do it twice!

Alex keeps trying cures, too. This time it's a flask of pure lemon juice, which leaves George's face puckered up like a fish.

Louie is on top form. He wears a necklace of garlic to keep the lice away and then smothers his turkey sandwich in chilli powder for the same reason. It doesn't end well for his tongue. He's also not above paying his friends to round up visitors, while George decides he'll win fair and square or not at all. It's a nice little moment in among all the burping.

There are real lice facts slipped in along the way, like what nits are and why garlic won't help. So if your child has just come home with a letter about nits, they might find this one extra funny.

What to read next

If they're enjoying George, you could go back to Trouble Magnet, the earliest George Brown book in the library, where Mrs Kelly's hula dancing lesson nearly sets the burp off.