My Brother’s Famous Bottom Makes a Splash!

Jeremy Strong's My Brother's Famous Bottom Makes a Splash is a very funny holiday story for 8 year olds, and it opens with Dad getting arrested.

What happens

He really does. Dad has bought a paddleboard for the family trip to Turkey and wants to practise first, so he takes it down to the park pond. Every time he swings it round, somebody else goes flying into the water. A little girl, two mums, both park keepers and a policewoman all get a soaking. By Mum's count that's nine strangers before he's even left town! (The paddleboard gets arrested too.)

Getting to Turkey isn't easy either. The twins try to pack the hens in their suitcases. Then the paddleboard goes berserk at check-in and bops an old man in a wheelchair on the head.

Once they're there it's sunshine, sand that burns your feet and a friendly stray dog that Tomato names Ice Cream. There's also a family Nicholas would much rather avoid. The Grubnoses are snooty and cross about everything, and their son Mason has it in for Nicholas from the start.

Mum is on brilliant form in this one. When Mrs Grubnose mocks Dad loudly at breakfast, Mum fires straight back and calls the sunburnt Grubnoses three boiled lobsters. People actually clap! Who doesn't love it when a grown-up finally says what everyone's thinking?

Nicholas narrates, so you get the whole trip as an eleven-year-old big brother sees it. He's embarrassed by Dad, patient with the twins and quietly helping Tomato hide a tortoise called Bumpy in the bath. There's a soft spot for the town's stray animals too (Irfan from the hotel has three kittens tucked away in a towel cupboard).

It's book eleven for this family, but it reads perfectly well on its own. It's super silly. There's a karaoke night, a belly dancer, a fire alarm, an indoor rainstorm from the sprinklers and a food fight with flying cucumbers.

Got a reader who loves a holiday that goes wrong in every possible way? This one is for them.

What to read next

If they'd like another family trip with Tomato just as determined to bring the hens along, try My Brother's Famous Bottom Goes Camping, where Dad's latest plan is a holiday in a camper van.