Megan McDonald’s Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express is a funny story for 7 year olds about what happens when somebody says yes to 101 guinea pigs.<\/p>\n
Stink, Webster and Sophie find three guinea pigs in Webster’s garden. Nobody has any idea where they came from. One has blue eyes and spiky hair, Stink names him Astro on the spot, and that is that.<\/p>\n
They carry them to Fur and Fangs, the pet shop, and walk straight into bedlam. Cages toppled everywhere, puppies squealing, parrots squawking, rabbits going round in circles and guinea pigs loose all over the floor.<\/p>\n
Mrs Birdwistle has taken in a hundred and one of them.<\/p>\n
Which means she now needs a hundred and one homes, and the three friends set out to find them. This is the funniest stretch of the whole book. They knock on door after door and collect a different no every time. Three dogs already. Allergies. Come back when you are selling biscuits. One woman chases a guinea pig round her living room with a broom because she has decided it is a rat.<\/p>\n
Then Stink has an idea involving an old camper van, a lot of paint and the words Squeals on Wheels.<\/p>\n
McDonald writes the way seven-year-olds actually talk, which is mostly showing off at each other. Everything gets a name. Guinea pig palooza. The Great Wall of Guinea Pigs. Astro-NOT, for the moment Stink’s parents say no. Your reader will be saying these out loud within a page, and probably at you.<\/p>\n
One thing to mention. The reason there are so many guinea pigs is that a laboratory had been using them to test shampoo and perfume, keeping twenty or more to a cage, and Mrs Birdwistle explains all that plainly right at the start. There is also a man with a snake van who cheerfully offers to take fifty, and the children work out why and leave in a hurry. It is handled lightly and an animal-mad child will mostly feel fiercely on the guinea pigs’ side, but it is there.<\/p>\n
The story is short and it moves, which suits a reader who wants a proper plot without a thick book.<\/p>\n
If they like Stink’s company, the Shark Sleepover is here too. His parents win the whole family a night at the aquarium, which means a sea-creature scavenger hunt, a jellyfish light show and sand tiger sharks with very good teeth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Megan McDonald’s Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express is a funny story for 7 year olds about what happens when somebody says yes to 101 guinea pigs. Stink, Webster and Sophie find three guinea pigs in Webster’s garden. Nobody has any idea where they came from. One has blue eyes and spiky hair, Stink […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10752,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8739,"lr_next_read_anchor":"the Shark Sleepover","lr_seo_hook":"Three friends, one camper van and 101 guinea pigs needing homes."},"book_tag":[23],"age_group":[19],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[706],"class_list":["post-8736","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-funny-books","age_group-books-for-7-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-megan-mcdonald"],"yoast_title":"Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by Megan McDonald | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Three friends, one camper van and 101 guinea pigs needing homes. For ages 7+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n