Muddle Earth Too

Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's Muddle Earth Too is a daft, joke-a-minute fantasy for 9 year olds about a boy who follows his sister through a flat-pack wardrobe.

What happens

Joe's big sister Ella has roped him into building her new wardrobe. It's called the Tumnus (yes, really), and the instructions might as well be in Elvish. When it's finally up, Joe shuts her inside it for a laugh. Then he opens the door and she's gone.

So he climbs in after her. The fur coats turn into fir trees, and there's a lamp-post glowing up ahead. Anyone who knows Narnia will be grinning by now. This is Muddle Earth, though, so the snow is ash from Mount Boom and the lamp-post wanders off on its own little feet.

Joe has been here before, nearly a year ago. The wizard Randalf, his sharp-tongued budgie Veronica and Norbert the Not-Very-Big (a three-eyed ogre) are thrilled to see him. Randalf is now headmaster of Stinkyhogs School of Wizardry. The school's broomball team has just walked out, a big match is days away, and Joe is signed up as a warrior-hero before he can say no.

Broomball, by the way, has nothing to do with flying. You sweep grated cheese towards a fireplace, and there's a stiltmouse inside the ball sniffing it out. Joe's helmet is a wedge of cheese, and the centre spoon scoops bits off it to throw. It's completely ridiculous and the book knows it!

Meanwhile Ella is in a dreamy daze over Edward Gorgeous, a brooding young barbarian who sleeps hanging upside down from the rafters. He does keep staring very hard at her thumb. What could that be about? Older readers will spot the joke long before Joe does.

The gags come thick and fast. There's a staff room stuffed with actual staffs, a cave trog who is also the school bell and the noticeboard, and a cheese sandwich that tastes of soggy cardboard and unwashed feet. It's even funnier if your reader already knows the famous stories being sent up, but the slapstick works either way.

If your child likes their fantasy with a big dollop of nonsense, this is super silly in the best way.

What to read next

This is Joe's second visit, and the first gets a quick recap early on. To meet Randalf and Veronica from the very beginning, go back to the first Muddle Earth book, where Randalf's warrior-hero spell brings Joe in by mistake.