Mr Majeika and the School Caretaker

Humphrey Carpenter's Mr Majeika and the School Caretaker is a daft, magical school story for 6 year olds about a new caretaker who makes everyone's life a misery.

What happens

Mr Jenks has been the caretaker at St Barty's for as long as anyone can remember. He's kind, he smiles at everyone, and he gets their names wrong (nobody minds). Now he's retiring.

Hamish Bigmore, the rudest boy in Class Three, marches his Uncle Wilf into the head teacher's office. Uncle Wilf is enormous and grumpy, and Mr Potter is too scared to say no. So Uncle Wilf gets the job.

He's AWFUL. He jabs children with the hoover, locks them out, smashes a perfectly good light bulb and parks his big black van in the middle of the playground.

Mr Majeika used to be a wizard before he became a teacher. But he hasn't done any magic for ages, and Class Three are fed up of things being boring.

Then comes a class trip on a canal boat. Hamish finally gets a go at steering, puts his foot down and crashes into a bridge. Mr Majeika and Jody both end up with broken legs.

That's when the magic comes back. The boat flies them to hospital, a wheelchair takes off, and Thomas zooms around on a flying hoover! There's also a very strange nurse with a very long nose and big boots.

It's quick, silly and easy to follow. Jody, Thomas and Pete do most of the saving, which children love. And Hamish is so horrid that you'll be cheering against him the whole way.

It gets a bit exciting for the youngest listeners. There are broken legs and a kidnapping, and at one point baddies threaten to push Mr Majeika into a quarry. It's all played for laughs, though, and nobody stays hurt for long.

What to read next

Mr Majeika's arrival at St Barty's is in the very first Mr Majeika book, and it's a treat. He flies in through the classroom window on a magic carpet (and turns it into a bicycle when the head teacher looks).