Tag Frank Cottrell-Boyce

The Wonder Brothers

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The Wonder Brothers
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton
Macmillan Children’s Books


The focus of this tale is cousin trio – Middy, Nathan and Brodie, plus a very large, show-stealing rabbit, Queenie. It’s the summer holiday and Nathan and Brodie have, as usual, come to stay with Middy in Blackpool. Middy’s dad, Uncle Kevin is the electrician responsible for the Blackpool Illuminations and the Tower; Middy’s mum, Auntie Anya, is the ‘Boss’ plumber of Blackpool Tower. This enables the three children to be on the scene when the world’s greatest magician, Perplexion, aka the Master of Mystery, comes to switch on the Illuminations as the penultimate stop of his final world tour. He will, as Uncle Kevin tells the children. ‘appear, turn the lights on and then disappear.’


That might just be the understatement of the decade. For, the Wonder Brothers (Middy and Nathan) upstage Perplexion’s appearance with a magic trick of their own; then the morning after Perplexion has magically made the Blackpool Tower disappear, Nathan appears on television, announcing that The Wonder Brothers will make it reappear. Which is why, or maybe how, they accidentally end up, not going home for tea, but in Las Vegas.

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There, following some incidents in the Camelot Casino Hotel, we find them talking to Captain Jimenez of the Metropolitan Police Department. You couldn’t make it up could you? – unless you happen to be the author of this splendidly comical book of course. Comical it might be, but the final sentence is one of considerable depth.


Steven Lenton’s black-and-white illustrations add some visual magic to the wonderful word weaving of Frank Cottrell-Boyce who must have done a considerable amount of research for this story.


It’s said that prestidigitation is the thief of time: it was certainly so where this book is concerned – the minutes and hours whizzed by and I just couldn’t put it down until I’d got to that final Ta-Dah!



Runaway Robot

jillrbennett 2 Comments

Runaway Robot
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton
Macmillan Children’s Books

After being in a road accident, twelve year old Alfie has been fitted with a prosthetic hand – this makes him ‘a bit bionic’ he tells us. Along with the loss of his hand though, the boy has lost his confidence.

He explains how he bunks school( aka Limb Lab) – ‘swerving school’ he calls it, and instead of joining in the “New Life’ lessons he goes to hang out at the arrivals lounge of the airport.

On one such swerving occasion Alfie accidentally loses his state-of-the-art hand. At lost property, instead of his hand, the lad finds Eric, a six-foot tall, metal robot with a propensity for singing the national anthem. “I AM YOUR OBEDIENT SERVANT” Eric announces and “I CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTION” (except the ones he doesn’t know the answer to, that is.)

Eric too is missing a limb, one if his legs. Despite this, unlike the other robots Alfie decides Eric is anything but ‘a disappointing robot’. Indeed, he declares him ‘the most-not-disappointing robot you could ever meet’.

It’s no surprise then that the boy will do everything he can to keep the illegal Eric from being crushed at the R-U-Recycling scrapyard.

No easy task as despite his fine manners, Eric takes instructions literally, which inevitably gives rise to a fair few problems.

But with reports of a rogue robot at large terrifying the estate, should Alfie even be bent on saving Eric?

Alfie’s world might be full of things robotic (he does make some new human friends too) though in essence this story is about what being human really means.

With a plot that makes you both laugh and cry, that’s what makes Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s highly original book so satisfying. Add to that a sprinkling of Steven Lenton’s smashing illustrations and what you have is an unmissable treat.