The Bolds on Holiday

Julian Clary's The Bolds on Holiday is a giggly seaside story for 6 year olds about a hyena family who go camping, with one of them pretending to be the dog.

What happens

The Bolds are hyenas who live as people in Teddington, and so far nobody has rumbled them. But before the holiday comes Sports Day.

Running on two legs is hard enough for a hyena. Tie one of them to your sister's and you've got no chance! Bobby and Betty end up flat on their backs on the track, legs waving, howling with laughter.

Then the mean boy in Bobby's class shoves him over during the long jump. So for his last go, Bobby drops onto all fours and runs like the hyena he really is. He jumps further than anyone else. (Nothing in the rules says you can't, as his teacher points out.)

On the way home he twists his ankle in a rabbit hole. That's a real problem, because a hospital X-ray would show hyena bones.

So Bobby goes to the vet instead, as a dog. Clothes off, collar on and absolutely no talking. He even gets to choose his own dog name, and he picks Stinky for reasons your reader will find VERY funny.

After that it's off to Cornwall for two weeks of camping. Nobody can put the tent up, nobody packed the sleeping bags, and they all end up sleeping in the suitcases. The cows in the next field know exactly what the Bolds are. Bobby sees the sea for the first time, and something in the water is watching him...

The narrator keeps stopping to ask your reader what they think. Why can't Bobby go to hospital? How well do they reckon Mr and Mrs Bold did in the parents' race? It makes it a lovely one to read aloud together.

One thing to be ready for. The rude vet makes a few jokes about Bobby having the snip, and a bully threatens to punch him. Neither lasts long, but you might get a question or two.

The words in this edition are American ones, so it's a vacation rather than a holiday and the bins are trash cans.

It also carries on the family's story, so start with The Bolds if your reader hasn't met them yet.

What to read next

If being a dog is their favourite part, The Girl Who Thought She Was a Dog turns it the other way round. Fennel grows up beside a boxer called Twiglet, eats out of a metal bowl and wags her bottom at visitors (there's a scary dog attack at the park in that one, so have a look first).