Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire

Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire is four laugh-out-loud stories for 6 year olds about a boy who has no plans to be good, ever.

What happens

Henry is horrid. His little brother Peter is perfect. That's the whole engine of these stories, and it never gets old.

In the first one, Peter reads out his new story at dinner. It's about butterfly fairies painting a rainbow. Henry thinks it's the worst thing ever written (and a sprout somehow ends up flying across the table). Then he copies it for his own homework and gets sent to read it to Peter's class... so he changes the ending. Let's just say the giants win and the little ones are not impressed.

Next a celebrity chef called Mr Nudie Foodie arrives to make school dinners healthy, and Henry sets out to sabotage his vegetable sauce. Then Henry invents a game called Robot and Mad Professor, which somehow ends with all of Peter's pocket money and sweets in Henry's hands.

The last story is a class sleepover at the local museum. Henry has his comics confiscated (he's sure Peter told on him), so he gets his revenge by convincing Peter and his friends that two of the teachers are zombie vampires.

It's brilliant for reading aloud. You hear all of Henry's outraged thoughts, and it's very easy to do the voices. He's naughty but never nasty for long, and his plans have a habit of backfiring in ways he didn't see coming.

Who hasn't wanted to get one over on an annoying brother or sister? Kids will cheer Henry on and then enjoy watching it all go wrong for him.

One thing to know is that this is the American edition. It's Mom rather than Mum, candy rather than sweets, and Peter's savings are in dollars. Most children won't mind at all, though a very new reader might trip over a word or two.

What to read next

For more of the same chaos, Horrid Henry Wakes the Dead has four more stories, starting with a battle for the comfy black chair and the TV remote.