Tag James Turner

Reggie Rabbit and the Metro Mice / Toby and the Pixies: How To Be Cool

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Reggie Rabbit and the Metro Mice
Swapna Reddy and Becka Moor
Oxford Children’s Books

This is the 4th of the Reggie Rabbit series and it appears that Reggie isn’t quite as sharp as usual and is missing bits of information here and there: could those high-alert detective skills be getting a tad rusty?
As he and Pipsqueak head out of the school gates one afternoon, they are approached by Mo, a shy mouse asking for their help. His home, the warren-like metro tunnels beneath Bearburgh, is under threat, putting the metro mice in great danger. Cracks are appearing in the metro’s structure but equally, the mouse community isn’t united in wanting help from members of ‘The Aboves’ so Mo’s Aunty Mona says.

Mo isn’t going to give up on their help though and he takes Reggie and Pipsqueak to a tunnel beside the council room where they hear strange sounds and see more cracks appearing. Once back on the surface Reggie and Pipsqueak hear a scream for help. They rush down the city street to where a jeweller tells them that he’s been robbed. Maybe the two things are connected with the criminal activity of racoon, Nora Masque, Reggie’s nemesis, and her brothers. It looks as though it’s up to Reggie and Pipsqueak to discover what is afoot.

Part chapter book, part graphic novel, this funny tale is ideal for new solo readers particularly young comic lovers.

For slightly older readers of graphic novels is:

Toby and the Pixies: How To Be Cool
James Turner and Andreas Schuster
David Fickling Books

In this 4th book featuring the accidental king of the pixies Toby is endeavouring to reinvent himself as T-Train. However, it doesn’t work so the pixies step in to help by using a memory orb, telling Toby that it will ‘make sure that everyone gives you a completely clean slate.’ This is clearly a step too far as now, not even Toby’s dad recognises him and sends the boy packing from his home.

A fresh start or an utter mess? Can the pixies sort out this particular disaster. Maybe but that’s only the beginning of the mayhem. Then come the hairy problems and a whole lot of more besides.

Ridiculously nonsensical silliness but highly hilarious: Toby’s fans will gobble it up and ask for more.

Jack the Fairy: The Week the Bad Fairies Escaped / Toby and the Pixies: Pixie Pandemonium

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Jack the Fairy: The Week the Bad Fairies Escaped
Tom McLaughlin
Oxford Children’s Books

As a member of the magical world, ten year old Jack is not a role model. Indeed he’s broken a couple of rules – taking his wand to school and even worse, letting Charlie, his best friend, know that he’s a fairy. However, when he accidentally magics Charlie through an inter dimensional portal to a sinister place – Lonely Island – home to creatures who hate humans, he has to inform his Mum and Uncle Dave what has happened. His Mum is furious: Uncle Dave says an emergency plan must be put into action. Off they go on operation rescue but they’ll have to contend with snot-firing Bonzo the Bogeyman and the evil Twinkle and her gang who want to take over control of the world.

Can they possibly rescue Charlie? Maybe, with assistance from Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, the monstrous Nessy and an elf who insists that Charlie’s memory must be wiped.

Liberally scattered with Tom’s black and white illustrations, the whole thing is utterly crazy but huge fun. Ideally you should have read Jack’s previous two adventures before this one, so if you haven’t and you enjoy magical shenanigans, with occasional flatulence, then get hold of all three books and start with The Day the Unicorns Stopped Farting.

There are also plenty of crazy happenings in:

Toby and the Pixies: Pixie Pandemonium
James Turner and Andreas Schuster
David Fickling Books

If you don’t know Toby, he is just a normal boy except that he’s accidentally become King of a magical pixie realm hidden at the bottom of his garden. Events herein include a visit to the dentist accompanied by his father, a cooking lesson catastrophe and a dose of a brain power-increasing potion – or is it?
This is chaotic madcap magic and some: you’ll likely end up with aching ribs from laughing as you follow the events herein.

Toby and the Pixies: Worst King Ever!

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Toby and the Pixies: Worst King Ever!
James Turner and Andreas Schuster
David Fickling Books

Twelve year old Toby Cauldwell is desperately trying to fit in at Suburbiton High School, not very successfully though. Then there’s Mo who is in a similar situation and despite their differences the two become buddies.

Meanwhile deep in the undergrowth of Toby’s garden is a hidden kingdom of pixies ruled over by the evil King Thornprickle. Not for much longer however for having bid farewell to Mo, Toby kicks at a plaster gnome in his garden and the next thing he knows is that he’s being hailed as the new king of the pixies. Pixie law states that the ruler can do anything they want – not a prospect Toby relishes AT ALL. But perhaps the whole pixie thing is a dream; that’s what he tells his Dad who is completely obsessed with making the perfect piece of toast.

How wrong can the lad be though for the pixies just won’t leave him be. They come into his house, pop up in school and turn his life into a nightmare. Then Toby makes the biggest mistake thus far: he grants the pesky things freedom to become autonomous. Pretty soon the classrooms are awash with green sludge and mushrooms are springing up everywhere: it’s chaos. Time for a rethink decides Toby, but again it’s a case of the best laid plans. So the boy heads home with Mo to play Camel Calamity, a video game, but there’s no stopping those pixies. More crises occur with badgers in a bathtub and Mo morphing into a bird so Toby decides to take Mo into his confidence re the pixies.

Then, shock horror: state duty calls and his majesty is told he’s the groom at a royal wedding

and marrying Princess Persephone. How will he extricate himself from this one?
Maybe there will come a time when Toby decides that perhaps being the King of the Pixies isn’t really so bad after all – stranger things have happened.

All of this certainly goes to show that life is above all a journey of possibilities and to read of Toby et al is a deliciously fun way of demonstrating this.