Jeremy Strong’s My Brother’s Christmas Bottom-Unwrapped is a daft Christmas story for 8 year olds about a family trying to earn Christmas back.<\/p>\n
Nicholas is the one talking you through it. Five weeks before Christmas the paper factory where his dad works is closing down, and Dad, who is normally the silliest person in the house, has gone quiet and gloomy at the window.<\/p>\n
The twins take the news badly. Cheese wants a real space ship, with the goat and the chickens and all the rabbits on board. Tomato points out that you cannot breathe in space, so you would die, wouldn’t you Daddy. Nicholas is mainly relieved there will be no Christmas cake, which he says tastes like yuck with muck.<\/p>\n
Then the ideas start. Dad’s first involves filling a bath with baked beans outside the shopping centre and betting strangers that Mum will lie down in it. His second is selling the twins as mantelpiece ornaments.<\/p>\n
Nicholas is the one who suggests something that might actually work. A car wash, out on the street, with a bucket and a sign. It goes beautifully for about ten minutes, until Dad fetches the garden hose and the neighbour’s car windows turn out to be open.<\/p>\n
That neighbour is Mr Tugg, who Nicholas describes as a human firework, complete with a six-stage list of how he goes off. Stage six is his head exploding and falling off.<\/p>\n
Mum’s plan is better. They will bake gingerbread and mince pies and tree decorations, then open the house and garden to the public for the day. The back garden is already a small farm, with Rubbish the goat, Schumacher the tortoise, chickens and rabbits. Dad growls and scowls and pretends to hate it, then declares it utterly nutterly brilliant and whirls Mum round the kitchen, breaking two plates and treading on Tomato.<\/p>\n
What it feels like to read is a very fast family comedy where somebody is always shouting and nobody stays cross for long. Granny turns up on a motorbike with her husband Lancelot, who calls her honey-babe, which Nicholas finds appalling given she is nearly seventy.<\/p>\n
Underneath all the noise there is a real worry and the book does not pretend otherwise. No money for presents, a dad who is not himself, a mum keeping everyone steady. It is handled lightly. Still, if money is tight in your house this year, your reader will notice that it is tight in this one too. Some children find that comforting and some would rather not think about it.<\/p>\n
If they would rather see this lot when nobody has lost a job, My Brother’s Famous Bottom is in the library as well. Same family, same overdraft, and a plan that depends entirely on the twins passing an audition for a nappy advert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeremy Strong’s My Brother’s Christmas Bottom-Unwrapped is a daft Christmas story for 8 year olds about a family trying to earn Christmas back. Nicholas is the one talking you through it. Five weeks before Christmas the paper factory where his dad works is closing down, and Dad, who is normally the silliest person in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10971,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8175,"lr_next_read_anchor":"My Brother's Famous Bottom","lr_seo_hook":"The factory is closing, so this family sets out to earn Christmas back."},"book_tag":[23],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[463],"class_list":["post-8174","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-funny-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-jeremy-strong"],"yoast_title":"My Brother’s Christmas Bottom-Unwrapped! by Jeremy Strong | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"The factory is closing, so this family sets out to earn Christmas back. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n