Read The Great Crisp Robbery free in the Little Reads app.
Pamela Butchart's The Great Crisp Robbery is a laugh-out-loud school trip mystery for 7 year olds, set on a sleeper train to London at midnight.
Izzy can't believe it. Her class is going to London on the sleeper train, and they'll actually go to BED on it. Will the duvet covers look like giant train tickets? She really hopes so.
Not everything goes to plan, though. Their teacher Miss Jones isn't coming, and the new teacher in charge is a bit odd (she can't even get their names right). Jodi can't come either, because she's a bridesmaid at her aunt's wedding. Then a pink floaty figure comes flying down the platform, and it isn't a ghost at all. It's Jodi, still in her bridesmaid dress!
Once they're on board it's all tiny cabins, a bed that pulls out of the wall and twenty-four egg mayo sandwiches. There's also a fierce contest with the boys next door over who got the most. Then Izzy spots a hooded figure watching them from the platform. Nobody believes her. Not until there's a scream in the night.
These books are told in Izzy's own voice, and it's like listening to a very excited friend tell you a story. She wanders off into little side stories (usually about Maisie fainting somewhere unlikely) and puts all the important words in CAPITALS. It's breathless and daft and very, very funny.
The gang are a joy. Jodi takes charge of everything and makes her friends do army training at her house. Maisie faints whenever things get scary, which is often. And Gary Petrie turns up with bags of crisps stapled inside his coat, then swans about in a silky dressing gown calling himself Inspector Petrie.
Is it scary? Not really. The spooky moments are always followed by something ridiculous, and a lot of the mystery is the friends squabbling over who gets to be in charge of solving it.
If you've got a reader who loves a mystery but isn't ready for anything properly creepy, this is a great fit. It's especially good fun for anyone who's been on a school trip and remembers how exciting a night away felt.
If they want more of Izzy and her friends, Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies takes the gang back to school, where the dinner ladies are wearing strange new hats and something very odd is floating in the water jugs.
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
No trial. No payment. Just download.
