Ben Miller’s Once Upon a Legend is a funny, big-hearted adventure for 8 year olds about a boy who’s trying his very hardest to get thrown out of school.<\/p>\n
Marcus is in the headmaster’s office again. This time he moved the “shallow end” sign and a teacher lost two front teeth doing a racing dive. His record also includes laxatives in the school custard and a shaved school goat (so you know what kind of boy we’re dealing with).<\/p>\n
Instead of suspending him, the head sends him to Merlin’s for the week of half-term. It’s a boarding school near Stonehenge, and in its whole history nobody has ever been expelled.<\/p>\n
Marcus is determined to be the first.<\/p>\n
The trouble is, Merlin’s is built for it. Throw your breakfast at the wall and the headteacher, Mr Sheen, starts a food fight. Afterwards the skirting boards hoover up the mess and the room dries itself. How do you get into trouble at a school like that?<\/p>\n
So Marcus goes for the one thing Mr Sheen keeps locked in a glass case, an old carved staff said to have belonged to Merlin himself. That’s when the huge grassy mound in the middle of the school starts to move…<\/p>\n
It’s great fun, but there’s a real heart under the jokes. Marcus’s parents have split up. His dad roars off on his motorbike instead of taking him out for dinner, and his mum has just said yes to marrying Colin. Marcus says “I’m fine” so often that a girl at Merlin’s points it out. He very clearly isn’t.<\/p>\n
That makes it a lovely one for a child going through changes at home, or who has a friend who is. It never lectures. You’ll just see Marcus’s anger for what it is long before he does.<\/p>\n
His temper does real damage, though, and it’s worth knowing that before you start. In a rage he shoves Tilly, a tiny girl who’s been nothing but friendly, and she tumbles down the mound and cuts her head. She’s all right, but Marcus feels dreadful, and so will your reader.<\/p>\n
If they’re after another boy whose temper runs away with him, try The Boy Who Made the World Disappear. Harrison is kind and honest, but when something really winds him up his parents call it a Code Red.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ben Miller’s Once Upon a Legend is a funny, big-hearted adventure for 8 year olds about a boy who’s trying his very hardest to get thrown out of school. Marcus is in the headmaster’s office again. This time he moved the “shallow end” sign and a teacher lost two front teeth doing a racing dive. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12930,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8888,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Boy Who Made the World Disappear","lr_seo_hook":"A prankster bent on expulsion lands at a school that never expels anyone."},"book_tag":[27],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[135],"class_list":["post-8343","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-fantasy-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-ben-miller"],"yoast_title":"Once Upon a Legend by Ben Miller | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A prankster bent on expulsion lands at a school that never expels anyone. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n