The Minpins by Roald Dahl

This was such an exciting book - the main character, Little Billy did something amazing.

Without spoiling it too much, he fended off a human-eating animal (and Minpin-eating). He was really brave because it was scary - I would be absolutely petrified if I was to be in his situation!

The Minpins are small characters, which live in the trees. You might be wondering how they get up and down - but they have a secret weapon. Suction boots! They stay off the ground in fear of being eaten by.... ok, I'm not going to give away the name! All until Little Billy gets rid of that monster once and for all.

Now the Minpins can spend their days picking raspberries, blueberries, spuckleberries and pickleberries!

I love this book so much, I've made it my book of the month.

The Minpins by Roald Dahl

Illustrated by Patrick Benson

Published by Penguin

THE BOLDS By Julian Clary

This family is far from normal. Here are some clues about what they are. They scavenge in the neighbours bins. They're very jolly. And they're quite hairy! They are actually HYENAS!

A couple go on honeymoon and somehow come back as hyenas. This is a story about a family of hyenas living in Teddington but pretending to be human beings. They have to try to hide it from other people because there would be a right carry-on if they were found out!

I was a bit scared when Mr McNumpty (the horrible neighbour) was keeping a close eye on them after Betty's tail was exposed... but it turned out there was a twist to Mr McNumpty.

This is a good book which is very funny. And I liked all of Mr Bold's Christmas cracker jokes. What do you call two happy mushrooms? Fun guys!

It got more and more exciting as it went on. I read it once and then I wanted to tell my mum all about it because she hadn't read it (yet). I was happy to see that there are more of these and I've asked my mum to get them from the library. I'm hoping the next ones are as good!

Rosa raved about this book. She wasn't sure about it at first so I read her the first two chapters, and then she'd devoured it by the time I got home from work! A wonderful premise that totally delivers. Lots of lovely illustrations, and love the black pages for the bits that are at night time. 7+ - Rosa's Mum

The Bolds by Julian Clary

Illustrated by David Roberts

Published 2015 by Anderson Press

263 pages

The Secret Mermaid - Reef Rescue. By Sue Mongredien

I have the whole collection of these (12 books) and I think they're quite good books.

They are always about a "regular" girl named Molly Holmes. By day she's a normal girl, by night she's a MERMAID. She has to help the shell-keeper mermaids get their conch shells back from the bad queen Carlotta and then from the different places they've been

hidden. The conch shells are important for the mermaids to have, otherwise there will be lots of accidents at sea, like ship wrecks and wilting coral.

Today, Molly must help Coral get her piece of conch shell back from lots of red jellyfish, which have been sent from Carlotta. They need something that has a protective shell to get the conch back without getting stung by the jellyfish. It just happens that there's just the thing stuck in some coral nearby.... If they can free him, maybe he'll help. After all he's quite friendly....

I like how realistic this book sounds, and it also uses some good adjectives (a describing word) so you can picture everything happening in you head. It's an exciting book but I don't like how the books keep repeating themselves. The queen Carlotta always sends a red eyed creature or just a red creature like the jellyfish to attack the mermaids.

Rosa really enjoyed reading these, but as she got towards the end of the whole series, the formula to the books was beginning to bore her. 7+ -Rosa's Mum

The Secret Mermaid - Reef Rescue by Sue Mongredien

Published 2009 by Usborne

86 pages