Chicken School by Jeremy Strong is a very silly school story for 8 year olds, told by a boy who is certain his family is the dullest on the planet.<\/p>\n
Tim Witkinson opens by presenting the awards. Most Uninteresting Father in Britain. Most Boring Hobby. Tim himself, known at school as Waste of Space, who has nothing at all of interest to tell you.<\/p>\n
His dad checks whether fish are fit to eat, then comes home and plays trains. There is a full layout running from his parents’ bedroom, through a hole in the wall, across the landing and into the spare room. Dad and his friend Mr Smith phone each other from either end, even though they can hear each other perfectly well.<\/p>\n
His mum is a librarian who sticks seashells onto things. The telly has shells on it. So does the downstairs loo. She would have done the seat if Tim had not stopped her.<\/p>\n
He liked all this when he was six. He is eleven now, and he would like a life please.<\/p>\n
So he and his one friend Pete sit upstairs turning themselves into monsters instead. Tim becomes a green warty thing with about thirty little horns and bursts in on his parents to demand they give up the choo-choos and the shelly pots and become Interesting and Exciting.<\/p>\n
Then one morning there is a message on the school wall in enormous Day-Glo green spray paint, with his name on it. And Sophie Goodsole’s.<\/p>\n
Mr Dedman the head teacher wants to know why Tim defaced school property. Tim points out that a bank robber does not generally sign the wall with his home address, which Mr Dedman finds so confusing that the pair of them end up arguing about a robbery that never happened. It is a proper laugh out loud page.<\/p>\n
Sophie gets dragged in next, bursts into tears, and stops speaking to him.<\/p>\n
Underneath the jokes this is quite a tender book about being the odd one out. Tim says he is a mouse. He asks questions like whether a whale could understand an elephant, and everybody wanders off.<\/p>\n
One thing to know before you hand it over. At playtime Gary Jarvis pins Tim against a wall by the throat and tells him Sophie is his, and to keep clear or else. It is written for laughs, and Tim survives it with a joke, but a child who is being bullied may not find that bit funny at all. If yours would rather see the bully lose, this is still their sort of book, because Tim is the one telling the story.<\/p>\n
If the imagination is what your reader enjoys, Krazy Kow Saves the World hands the job to a boy inventing a cartoon cow with a flame thrower in her udder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chicken School by Jeremy Strong is a very silly school story for 8 year olds, told by a boy who is certain his family is the dullest on the planet. Tim Witkinson opens by presenting the awards. Most Uninteresting Father in Britain. Most Boring Hobby. Tim himself, known at school as Waste of Space, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10637,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7909,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Krazy Kow Saves the World","lr_seo_hook":"The boy from the most boring family alive, framed by graffiti."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[463],"class_list":["post-7077","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-jeremy-strong"],"yoast_title":"Chicken School by Jeremy Strong | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"The boy from the most boring family alive, framed by graffiti. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n