Mr Majeika and the School Inspector

Humphrey Carpenter's Mr Majeika and the School Inspector is a funny magic story for 6 year olds about a teacher who used to be a wizard.

What happens

Mr Majeika teaches Class Three at St Barty's. He's supposed to have given up magic. Mostly he manages it. Mostly!

Then a man with a dripping moustache climbs in through the classroom window. It's Mr Postlethwaite, Inspector of Teachers, and he talks like a telegram. Ten penalty points and Mr Majeika loses his job for good.

Hamish Bigmore, the naughtiest boy in the class, is delighted. He tells the inspector that Mr Majeika once turned him into a frog. The points start piling up fast.

That's the first of three short stories. In the second, Mr Majeika gets so cross with Hamish that a spell goes wrong and he ends up in the fish tank as a lobster. Jody has to come up with a very risky plan involving Wilhelmina Worlock, the witch who can't stand him.

In the third, Class Three design their dream classroom and Mr Majeika magics each model big enough to walk around inside. Melanie's is a pink nursery with a giant teddy. Hamish's is made of Lego and has a Death Ray Gun in the cupboard!

It's a lovely read-aloud. The stories are short and full of daft voices, and there's always a grown-up being completely ridiculous. Who doesn't enjoy an inspector who takes a thermometer out of his briefcase to check a castle is warm enough?

Hamish is a brilliant baddie for this age. He's rude, he sticks his tongue out and he never does his homework. But as the twins point out, he somehow has a knack of making things turn out right.

Everything here is played for laughs, even the ghostly king waving an axe. It's a good one for a child just starting to read chapters on their own, or for sharing at bedtime.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, go back to where Mr Majeika first flies in, on a magic carpet through Class Three's window one rainy Monday.