Badgers Are Go!
Susannah Lloyd, illustrated by Nici Gregory
David Fickling Books

Lulu Whifferton-Rear likes nothing better than minding her own badgery business; but then she receives a letter concerning herself and a top secret mission. It tells her to report to The Rumptington Academy of Badgering the following morning and is signed by Major Musty Rumptington, She knows there’s no getting out of it and so early one Monday morning off she heads to begin her training.

In the dormitory she meets another badger, one Wilfred C. Crumblepaw (Wilf) and the two quickly become good friends. To her surprise, in her first lesson Lulu learns that important humans are not the normal kind, rather they’re Badger Operated Persons or BOPs for short.
As for her training, well from the outset it certainly doesn’t go very well; indeed we could call it utterly catastrophic. For starters there’s the cheese and tomato sandwich procedure where said sandwich ends up in the wrong orifice; this provides one of the many laugh-out-loud moments in the book

and causes Lulu to have serious self-doubts about her suitability for the training. Thank goodness for her pal Wilf who tells her she’s just got a different way of going about things, thus calming her anxiety just a tad, briefly at least. However there also comes a second cheese and tomato sandwich incident at a much more crucial stage in the story; but about this I’ll say no more other than it involves the Prime Minister and the King of Switzerland during a crucial World Peace Conference. Can this perhaps be a case when too much welly turns out to be just what’s needed to save the day and indeed the world? And will Lulu gain her first level Badgering certificate? Errr …

A hilarious romp with some important messages concerning perseverance and self-acceptance (imperfections and all) that will cause readers to cheer for Lulu throughout her trials and tribulations. It’s made all the more fun thanks to Nici Gregory’s lively drawings liberally scattered throughout the book; they really bring the whole badger world to life.

I look forward to reading more about Lulu when she returns next year.