The Misadventures of Mina Mahmood: School Inspectors
Farhana Islam, illustrated by Simran Diamond Singh
Farshore

Mina Mahmood and her best friends Reema and Mobeen are back for further misadventures and mayhem in the second book in the series. Mina and her class are super excited when they hear from their class teacher, Miss Khan, that 6K’s post-exam ‘Party Bonanza’ will include such things as a school disco, a water balloon fight and best of all, a trip to Fisbo’s Circus. Suddenly however, all this changes when Mr Aku, the headteacher announces that inspectors are coming to the school.

Tension rises at the news, even more so for Mina and her buddies who are selected to act as school ambassadors to show the inspectors around and are under strict instructions from the head that they mustn’t embarrass him. This in itself is a huge challenge but then, Barney’s pet tarantula (actually his brother’s) escapes just as the announcement comes from the school office of the inspectors’ arrival.

With Miss Kahn having said they might still be able to go to the circus if they impress the inspectors with their ‘EXCEPTIONAL behaviour’, this somewhat sweetens the pill, giving terrific incentive to the friends but putting a huge weight on Mina’s shoulders.

Chaos follows as you might expect if you met Mina et al in the first book of this hugely entertaining series. This one is even more hilarious and like the author, I’ve spent many years in primary education mainly in multi-ethnic schools, so recognise much of what’s written herein. I strongly recommend this for KS 2 readers and it would make a terrific class read aloud.