Georgia Pritchett’s Wilf the Mighty Worrier is King of the Jungle is a very funny story for 8 year olds about a boy who’s scared of animals going on holiday with his evil next-door neighbour.<\/p>\n
Wilf is a worrier about pretty much everything. He keeps a list of what scares him (scarecrows, poodles, beetles, snakes, crocodiles and getting eaten by an animal, for starters). He wears lucky green pants when things get serious. And he has a leaflet called HOW TO STOP WORRYING that he follows step by step.<\/p>\n
Next door lives Alan, a self-declared evil genius, and Alan’s dog Kevin Phillips, who mostly thinks about biscuits. This time Alan has invented a machine that lets people talk to animals. He’s just not very good at naming it. Your reader will probably be in fits by the time he’s tried FART, POTTY and POOBUM!<\/p>\n
Then Wilf’s mum books a family holiday to Zambia. With Alan. Grown-ups never listen, do they?<\/p>\n
Out in the jungle, Alan tries to recruit an animal army to take over the world. The trouble is, the animals are just as anxious as Wilf. Barry the crocodile is scared of water. Steve the lion is worried he has bad breath. And Colin the snake is terrified of snakes!<\/p>\n
That’s the lovely heart of it. Wilf keeps handing out his worry leaflets and making friends, and it turns out being kind is his secret weapon. When things go wrong he has “a great big old worry and then a great big old think”. His solutions are wonderfully daft, like colouring himself and his baby sister Dot green so the animals will think they’re sprouts.<\/p>\n
Dot is a star in her own right. She’s grubby, sticky and fearless, and she ends up being worshipped by a crowd of singing dung beetles.<\/p>\n
The narrator is half the fun. They butt in with footnotes, get the sums wrong on purpose and refuse to describe the scenery properly. It feels like being told the story by a very silly friend.<\/p>\n
Alan’s evil plans do include locking Wilf and Dot in a cage and tying them to a tree, but it’s all played for laughs (nobody takes Alan very seriously, including his dog). If you’ve got a reader who worries a lot, seeing Wilf be brave while still feeling scared might be really reassuring.<\/p>\n
If they want more of Wilf, try Wilf the Mighty Worrier Saves the World, where Alan first moves in next door and a very worried boy ends up rescuing the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Georgia Pritchett’s Wilf the Mighty Worrier is King of the Jungle is a very funny story for 8 year olds about a boy who’s scared of animals going on holiday with his evil next-door neighbour. Wilf is a worrier about pretty much everything. He keeps a list of what scares him (scarecrows, poodles, beetles, snakes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13380,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9753,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Wilf the Mighty Worrier Saves the World","lr_seo_hook":"Alan wants an animal army. The animals are all far too anxious to join."},"book_tag":[1050],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[348],"class_list":["post-9752","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-action-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-georgia-pritchett"],"yoast_title":"Wilf the Mighty Worrier is King of the Jungle by Georgia Pritchett | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Alan wants an animal army. The animals are all far too anxious to join. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n