What kind of neighbours are the Floods? Well … if the Floods were to host a barbeque they would drink blood instead of beer, barbeque by moonlight rather than on a Sunday afternoon, and instead of their pet dog pestering them for a sausage they would be bothered by their dead grandmother, who is buried in the backyard and hungry for teenage girls. Get the picture? The Floods simply want to practice black magic in peace, but are constantly disturbed by the obnoxious Dents next door, who alternate between screaming at each other and leaving the telly blaring. When the Dent’s nasty son Dickie bullies the Flood’s youngest (and only semi-normal) child Betty, she punishes him by turning him into a fridge. It is so nice to be rid of one of their stinky neighbours that the Floods decide to do away with the whole family. This is a fun, well-written, irreverent story. Unfortunately the narrative is repeatedly interrupted by footnotes, which work as funny side-comments (think The Amulet of Samarkand). Children’s authors of the world please note—no matter how funny, footnotes ruin the novel’s narrative flow and are likely to deter readers with a short attention span … like children.

Anna Metcalfe is a bookseller at Melbourne children’s specialist the Little Bookroom

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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