Mr Stink

Mr Stink by David Walliams is a story for 7 year olds about the man everybody in town walks past, and the one girl who stops.

What happens

Chloe is twelve and she's lonely. She doesn't fit in at her posh school. She doesn't really fit in at home either. Her mother has firm views about who her daughter is allowed to speak to.

Mr Stink is on the same bench every day with his little black dog, the Duchess. People drop coins by his feet and hurry away with their eyes watering. Nobody ever stays.

Chloe has been working up to saying hello for months. She's already invented whole lives for him. A sailor covered in medals for bravery. An opera singer who lost his voice on the top note. A Russian agent in a very committed disguise.

When she finally manages it, she offers him the five pounds her auntie sent her for a Christmas present. He says no. He's far too well mannered to take money off a child.

The smell is the engine of the whole first chapter and it gets an ENORMOUS amount of mileage. A stink is worse than a stench. A stench is worse than a pong. A pong is worse than a whiff. His beard has its own separate smell, which is somehow worse than his main one.

What makes it more than a smell joke is Mr Stink himself. He's unexpectedly posh. He calls Chloe "young lady" and there's a real twinkle when he smiles. She braced herself for a creature and got a gentleman.

Then there's the piece of paper. Chloe has walked around all afternoon with LOSER stuck to the back of her blazer and no idea it was there. Mr Stink is the one who spots it. He gets up off his bench, takes it from her and asks gently what's happened. That's where the friendship actually starts.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The bullying is specific. Chloe gets picked on for eating too many sweets, for having less money than the other girls, and for being the one neither hockey team wants. Her mother calls homeless people creatures. Chloe also hates Christmas, every single part of it, which is not something children's books usually let anyone say.

None of it is thrown in for shock and the book is completely on Chloe's side. If your child has had a version of that at school, they may want you within reach for the opening chapter. They may also be very relieved to see it written down.

Does your child invent entire backstories for strangers in the supermarket queue? Chloe is their kind of girl.

What to read next

If they enjoy a child who has thoroughly misjudged an old person, try Gangsta Granny, which is in the library too. Ben is certain his gran is the most boring woman alive, mainly on the evidence of the Scrabble and the cabbage smell. He could not be more wrong.