Review by The Mole
***GENUINE TASTE ALERT***
This review carries material that I feel is in very bad taste but necessary to explain my review. I have attempted to keep all of that in red. Apologies!
At a local pond there is an accident where chemicals accidentally get added without anyone knowing. George and a couple of friends are then asked by their teacher to give a presentation on sustainability and the environment to a younger class - a class that had visited the pond only the previous day. The class all seem to have come down with a cold on the same day and the teachers don't seem to be bothered but George, Allison and Kenny are curious. They go to investigate the unusual behaviour of the class and are attacked by some of the children - to pick their noses for any discharge. The children of the class had all been picking their noses and eating it to the point where some of their noses bleed. Allison then checks under their desks and finds the children have been licking the undersides to eat the discharge that children have previously wiped there and then...
Well, then I stopped reading - I genuinely felt sick from it! Maryom tried in case I was being overly sensitive but gave up before she got anything like as far as me! But let's be fair the cover does illustrate nasal discharge and the synopsis on the back does sort of explain a bit of what you might find and kids CAN find 'snot' amusing but this takes it too far. FAR too far and far too graphically.
There is a lot in here about teachers and kids books often have caricaturised teachers as figures of fun but here it felt like the author was having a 'go' at the teaching profession. OK, but in front of children we need to support their education and not undermine teaching or learning will suffer... this did not feel good at all! Wrong device in the wrong place.
There. I've had my say. One book I would certainly never recommend and one that if I found a child of mine reading I would find a way to lose it - QUICK!!
Having said that, I am not a nine year old but I know that the 9 year olds that I have known would not have read this. However this is MY opinion and if you have a child who reads and enjoys this then please let us know and at what age they read it.
Publisher - My Little Big Town
Genre - Children's Fiction, 9+
Buy The Tale Of Peter Rabbit (The World of Beatrix Potter)
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