Horrid Henry Wakes the Dead

Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry Wakes the Dead is a set of four short funny stories for 6 year olds about a boy who thinks the rules of his house are an outrage.

What happens

There is one small television in Henry's house. Whoever gets the comfy black chair decides what everyone watches. Peter gets there first and Henry comes home to a singing goat.

So Henry does what Henry does. He waits until the middle of the night, creeps downstairs, switches the telly over to his own channels, and hides the remote control deep inside a bucket of building blocks that nobody has touched for years.

Then he sits on the sofa and watches his brother work it out.

The other three stories have him running against Moody Margaret in a school election, doing a magic act at the talent show, and fighting Peter for the green dinosaur.

What makes these work is that you are inside Henry's head and Henry believes he is being completely reasonable. His parents are mean and horrible for owning one television when Rude Ralph has five. When he grows up and becomes King Henry the Horrible there will be three in every room, including the bathrooms.

The fights are the real thing. Wibble pants. Stinky poo poo. Did not, did too, MOOOOMMMM. If your reader has a brother or sister, they will know every beat of it.

Four short stories also makes this a good choice for a child who is just getting going with chapter books. Each one starts and finishes in a sitting, and nobody has to remember what happened in the last one.

A note on the edition in the library. It uses the American text, so Henry calls his mother Mom and a few other words have crossed over with her. It reads perfectly well. It is just a slightly odd fit for a series this British, and your reader may raise an eyebrow.

And yes, Henry gets away with rather a lot. Some households find that a problem and some find it the entire point. Peter does at least win as often as he loses.

What to read next

Another boy whose brilliant plans collapse on him is waiting in Dirty Bertie - Yuck!, which is in the library too. Bertie talks his gran into taking him to the funfair, then spends the whole evening hiding from his worst enemy while she drives a bumper car the wrong way round the track.