This illustrated novel for primary-school readers is a breath of crackling fresh air. The toughest kid in the school, Max Quigley, describes from his gloriously egocentric viewpoint how he isn’t a bully but an ‘observer’. He is smart and diabolically funny. When he goes too far in making Triffin Nordstrom’s life uncomfortable, parents and teachers push the boys together in the hope that Triffin’s ability in Maths will help Max, and Max’s confidence will rub off on Triffin. Both happen. James Roy has tackled the school and home setting with absolute craftsmanship. His economical, humorous text and dialogue are finely matched with a mastery of plot. He knows what works and how to achieve it. Roy maintains the elements of story that boys (and girls) love, such as a school scenario that is both realistically dangerous and funny. Teachers and teacher librarians will be able to use this novel throughout primary school, with its themes of bullying and relationships, references to other books and Book Week, and its epitomic ending wound around Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. Mature readers could also be referred to the author’s other recent publication, The ‘S’ Word: A Boys’ Guide to Sex, Puberty and Growing up.

Joy Lawn is the children’s literature consultant at Coaldrake’s Bookshop in Brisbane

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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