Tag Anders Sparring

The Pinchers and the Curse of the Egyptian Cat

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The Pinchers and the Curse of the Egyptian Cat
Anders Sparring and Per Gustavsson
Gecko Press

Is it possible that the unthinkable can happen to Theo Pincher, the only honest member of the Pincher family? It appears so in this latest of tales about them, which is prefaced by a paragraph about the titular ancient curse.

The adventure begins when Theo and his sister Ellen (Criminellen) wander into Pique’s Boutique, an antique shop and accidentally break the best thing in the place, a statue of Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess. Have they perhaps unleashed an ancient family curse.

Nic Pincher, the siblings’ mum tells them that Pick Pincher, her globe-trotting ancestor had once ignored a warning, nicked the very same cat statue that was guarding Tuttan-K’s tomb, became cursed and found himself unable to commit another robber ever again. Indeed he became a law-abiding police officer.

Suddenly it seems that Ellen has turned honest whereas Theo is becoming something of a criminal.
Then comes a knock at the door: it’s the shop owner, Anne Tique and she has a letter she found hidden inside the broken statue. Mysterious clues may show the family how to undo the curse, so following the clues, the Pinchers sneak out at night, into Ark Park zoo. There they have to contend with monkeys and Grizzly Gustavsson, the nasty bearlike zookeeper who makes trespassers spend the night with the poisonous spiders. Will they succeed in their mission? Will Theo ever return to his normal self again? Maybe an encounter with his best pal, police officer Paul Eessman, whistler extraordinaire, will help in this respect.

There’s a satisfying conclusion to this fantastical, fast-paced yarn (even Granny Stola makes an appearance in the final chapter.) The abundance of crazy antics are made all the more humorous by Per Gustavsson’s droll images, be they vignettes or filling the entire page. Just the thing to get those in Y3 and above enthused about reading.

The Pinchers and the Dog Chase

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The Pinchers and the Dog Chase
Anders Sparring and Per Gustavsson (translated from the original Swedish by Julia Marshall)
Gecko Press

This is the second adventure of the Pinchers, a family of thieves, all except for young Theo, the son of Rob and Nic Pincher and sister of Ellen. Theo is the honest one . the star of this book, who unbeknown to the others, aspires to become a police officer like neighbour Paul Eessman.
There’s a new guy on the block, a second police officer and an extremely dictatorial one at that. On his first encounter with Theo he calls the lad a thief and demands to see the receipt for the Pincher family’s dog, Sherlock. Unless Theo can produce said receipt it’s likely that Sherlock will join the other pooches that this newbie officer Clive has already impounded at the police station. The thing is Stola Pincher, retired robber, currently serving time in jail was the person who acquired Sherlock, so it’s unlikely she’ll have an ownership receipt.

Things get even worse when Clive takes Ellen and Theo to the police station accusing them of stealing from a candy store. Another receipt is demanded, which of course Ellen doesn’t have.

Pretty soon the siblings learn the impounded pooches are destined to be sent to the North Pole. Pretty quickly coffee cups start flying, splashing hot coffee in Clive’s face and the children make a dash for it.
A decision is made to hide Sherlock with Gran aka Stola Pincher at the jail, so being Saturday Nic and the children pay her a visit and almost unbelievably, Gran produces a valid receipt for Pincher from none other than Ollie Bowser, dog thief. But where is this fellow now? In a new job perhaps? Hmm. Could he now be wearing a uniform and demanding receipts? Can Theo pull off a rescue plan and save not only their own dog but others too?

With the occasional chapter narrated by Sherlock himself, this zany chapter book for new solo readers will leave them hoping for another madcap Pinchers’ instalment. Those who didn’t read the first book may well want to go back and do so now.

The Pinchers and the Diamond Heist / Magic Keepers: Mysterious Mishaps

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The Pinchers and the Diamond Heist
Anders Sparring and Per Gustavsson
Gecko Press

The opening chapter in this story for new solo readers reveals that only one of the Pincher family is honest; that’s Theo. His mum, dad and sister are thieves and lie all the time: the first names of the entire family are puns based on thieving: Theo’s parents are Nic and Rob, his sister is Criminellen (Ellen for short), Gran is Stola (she’s in prison) Before the story proper begins we learn a bit about each person – what they like to steal, tools they use and their personal motto. Next door to the Pinchers lives Paul Essman, a police officer, something Theo aspires to be.

When a diamond exhibition at the Royal Palace is announced in the newspaper Theo’s parents start planning their next crime. Then with bag duly packed, they leave the children and head off. Come bedtime Theo’s story reading prowess isn’t up to scratch so accompanied by his sister, he goes next door to ask Paul to read Ellen her bedtime story. He also divulges where their parents have gone and that’s where officer Paul immediately heads, leaving the children sans adult once again.

To satisfy Ellen’s need for adult company they head next to prison to visit Grandma. Once inside, all manner of crazy shenanigans ensue: there’s a break out, an encounter with policeman Paul, and the escapees plus Theo and Ellen head to the exhibition where more high drama takes place. Theo then devises a plan to get everyone home, there’s a surprise reveal, romance in the offing and through all this, apart from one time on purpose, Theo has remained a truth teller.

Zany illustrations of the crazy antics of members of the cast appear on almost every spread and are sure to illicit lots of giggles from young readers. If you want to discover your inner Pincher, the tongue-in-cheek back matter that follows the light-hearted story might prove useful.

Magic Keepers: Mysterious Mishaps
Linda Chapman, illustrated by Hoang Giang
Little Tiger

Strange things start to happen following a visit from Jo, one of Ava’s mum’s book club friends who has come to take photos for a poster she’s designing. It transpires that she’s photographed one of the magical curios – a golden chalice left by Ava’s great aunt. Since then their home town has been struck by a stream of accidents including a tree crashing into Jo’s front garden wall blocking the road and Jo jumping to avoid a lorry and ending up with a sprained wrist.

This object is a the Cup of Savnoch, a ’curse cup’ and best friends Ava, Sarah and Lily set about translating the writing they find on the front to find out what kind of curse it contains. This they do over the weekend and having cracked the code and read the writing, work out that there are only a couple of days of the five mentioned remaining in which to break the curse. Can they do what’s needed?

With plenty of black and white illustrations by Hoang Giang, this is another exciting story in the magical series, and one wherein Ava learns that her difficulty with spelling, written grammar and punctuation indicate she’s most likely to have dyslexia, which makes her feel so much better about herself.