Judy Moody, Mood Martian

Megan McDonald's Judy Moody, Mood Martian is a school story for 7 year olds about a girl who dares herself to go a whole week without getting in a mood.

What happens

Judy is in a mood. A sourball mood. School photos came home and she's got bird's nest hair and her I AM GIRL, HEAR ME ROAR T-shirt on, again, and she's been sent to Antarctica three times in one day. Antarctica is the desk at the back of the classroom where you go to cool off.

Then Backwards Day arrives. Judy does the most backwards thing she can think of. She brushes her hair.

Her clothes match. Her socks match. She's nice to Jessica Finch. She doesn't go to Antarctica once, and her teacher says backward looks good on her.

It works so well that she dares herself, secretly, to keep it going for seven days. Secretly, because then nobody can say I told you so if she fails.

What she doesn't expect is her friends getting worried about her. Then suspicious. Then giving her an actual quiz to prove she's been replaced by an alien.

Reading it is pure inside-Judy's-head. You get her own words for everything (snotsicles, easy-peasy mac-and-cheesy, the Yarn Yeti that eats her bedroom floor) and you also get the thing underneath, which is how tiring it is being a version of yourself you've decided is better. She goes to Jessica Finch's house and takes notes on how to be perfect. Clean room. Homework on time. Cupcake lip gloss. None of it works and the list gets longer anyway.

Any child who has ever been told to calm down will recognise the whole week.

It's also very funny about brothers. Stink shines a torch in her eyes and shouts "Imposter! Fakester! Fraudster!", then goes downstairs and tells their parents his sister's been snatched by Pod People.

Judy and her friends clearly have a lot of history by the time you arrive. A Boston tub party gets mentioned like you were there, and so does a missing puppy. It genuinely doesn't matter. Nothing depends on knowing.

What to read next

If they're after the other half of this family, Stink and the Incredible Shrinking Kid hands the story to the little brother. Stink is the shortest boy in his class, Judy measures him every morning, and one morning the ruler says he's gone backwards.