My Brother’s Famous Bottom Gets Crowned!

Jeremy Strong's My Brother's Famous Bottom Gets Crowned is a very silly family story for 8 year olds about a royal street party that EVERYONE wants to be in charge of.

What happens

The whole road is celebrating the Queen. There's going to be a procession, fancy dress, fireworks and a crowning ceremony for the oldest couple in the street. Mr Tugg next door is on the committee, so naturally Dad can't resist winding him up.

This is the ninth book about Nicholas and his family, and it's very daft indeed. Within a few pages Dad is hiding behind the sofa and putting on a ridiculous accent. Mr Tugg goes red, then purple, then white with a touch of green round the ears.

Then Dad tells the meeting he's in a band. He isn't, really (it's a band of one). So the family has to turn into a real one, fast. Mum bangs saucepans until a proper drum kit turns up. Nicholas can only manage Three Blind Mice on the recorder. And the bossy chairwoman insists on singing, which is a problem because she sounds like an owl.

The best surprise is Granny. Nicholas can't believe she was ever in a pop group, let alone that she played the double bass while balancing on top of it. Can you imagine your own granny paddling to shore on one after falling in a river?

There's a little worry running under the jokes too. Charlie Smugg, the policeman's teenage son, has told Nicholas's friend Trevor that the party isn't going to happen. Then a letter made of cut-out newspaper letters lands on the doormat. Nicholas lies awake half the night fretting, so there's a proper reason to keep turning the pages.

Nicholas tells it all straight to you and he's very good company. He loves his family and thinks they're all bonkers. (Mum reckons there are only two sensible people in the house, and he's one of them.) The twins Cheese and Tomato pinch every scene they're in, with Tomato yelling "silly sausage moo cow" at anyone who'll listen.

If your reader likes a book where the grown-ups do most of the misbehaving, this is perfect. And by the sound of the title, the Queen isn't the only one getting crowned!

What to read next

Trevor's dog Streaker comes bounding in here too and knocks Nicholas flat. If they'd like more of that pair, The Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog is Trevor's own story, and Charlie Smugg is making trouble there as well.