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Caroline Adderson's Jasper John Dooley: You're in Trouble is a very funny story for 7 year olds about one can of fizzy drink and a whole week of feeling Bad.
After football practice, Jasper presses C3 on the vending machine for apple juice. Out rolls a red and black can with a torpedo on the front. It's Torpedo High Energy Drink, and it's definitely one of the Bad ones.
Dad has just had a fright losing sight of him, so he says yes to a sip. Then he asks Jasper not to mention any of it to Mum. The can ends up hidden at the back of the fridge, behind all Mum's yogurt pots of leftovers.
And every time Jasper sneaks a few more sips, he gets High Energy. Fast! He burps sixteen times on the drive home. He sculpts his shampoo into horns and leaps out at his parents with a roar. He answers the register at school with "Beep!" and puts on the Saturday pants on a Friday (on purpose!).
What I love is how seriously Jasper takes his own Badness. His bike skid leaves a smoky black mark in the alley, and he's sure it's a black mark against him that the whole street can see. Who hasn't been seven and felt like the naughtiest person alive over something tiny?
The grown-ups are funny too. Dad's big idea for football is to pretend the ball is a jug of milk. It sort of works, just not in the way anyone expected (Jasper spends the match as a beeping bee, stinging the other team with his finger).
The sentences are short and bouncy, with lots of "so so so" and capital letters for the Bad things, so it's lovely to read aloud or on their own. There's a real kindness in it as well. His Nan calls him the best boy she knows, and Jasper very much doesn't want to stop being that.
It might start a chat about energy drinks at your house, which is no bad thing. Mum is very clear they're not for kids.
If this goes down well, Jasper John Dooley: Lost and Found brings back Jasper, his friend Ori and Wednesdays at Nan's, this time with a box of old toys and a very special orange mouse.
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