Jeremy Strong’s The Karate Princess in MoNsta Trouble is a daft adventure for 8 year olds about a bride who is bored rigid of her own honeymoon.<\/p>\n
Belinda is drifting down a river in a boat. The sun is out, the sky is blue, the birds are chirping and her best friend Knackerleevee is singing. Knackerleevee is a Bogle, which means he is enormous, hairy and has a voice like a weasel being hit on the head.<\/p>\n
Belinda lasts about two days of this. Then she announces she is going mad with boredom and throws herself over the side.<\/p>\n
She surfaces laughing. Her husband Hubert and the Bogle are both in the river, and the Bogle cannot swim, which nobody thought to mention before.<\/p>\n
Back at her father’s castle she works off the rest of her energy by karate-chopping the heads off the family statues. King Stormbelly is not thrilled. That was Great Uncle Albert. There goes Auntie Rosie.<\/p>\n
Her mother suggests knitting. Maybe a cardigan for Knackerleevee.<\/p>\n
Belinda thinks this is the funniest thing she has ever heard. Then the Bogle shuffles in, stares at the floor, and admits that actually he would love a cardigan. And socks. He has never had either. He spent his whole life in a marsh.<\/p>\n
It’s a lovely little moment in the middle of all the silliness, and it’s very Jeremy Strong. The joke and the soft bit arrive in the same breath.<\/p>\n
Then a messenger falls off a pony with a letter from Belinda’s Uncle Dudless, the Duke of Dork, who is genuinely one of the stupidest people in any book. He calls her Dorinda. He congratulates her on a lovely funeral. He cannot remember the word honeymoon and keeps guessing at jams. His wife sits in the corner with chunks of cheese wedged in her ears so she doesn’t have to listen to him.<\/p>\n
What the Duke needs is help. There’s a two-headed MoNsta loose, it is eating armies and pet rabbits, and there is a prize on offer. Belinda is thrilled. Hubert brings his paints. Belinda brings her bare hands, because that’s all she has ever needed.<\/p>\n
It’s proper knockabout stuff, so expect a monster who wants to eat people and a heroine who keeps volunteering to be near it. Nothing dwells. The story is always sprinting towards the next joke.<\/p>\n
If they want to know how Belinda ended up chopping statues and marrying Hubert, the first Karate Princess book goes right back to the start. She is the sixteenth daughter, the only one nobody calls beautiful, and her father has no idea what to do with her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeremy Strong’s The Karate Princess in MoNsta Trouble is a daft adventure for 8 year olds about a bride who is bored rigid of her own honeymoon. Belinda is drifting down a river in a boat. The sun is out, the sky is blue, the birds are chirping and her best friend Knackerleevee is singing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11170,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9158,"lr_next_read_anchor":"the first Karate Princess book","lr_seo_hook":"A bored bride, a Bogle in a cardigan and a two-headed monster."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[463],"class_list":["post-9160","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":"The Karate Princess in MoNsta Trouble by Jeremy Strong | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A bored bride, a Bogle in a cardigan and a two-headed monster. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n