Monday 17 July 2017

Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms Children's Book Review

The shortlist for the 2017 Scholastic Books Laugh Out Loud Awards - or the 'Lollies' - has been selected by Michael Rosen and a panel of expert judges, and my 7 and 8 year old boys are reviewing a couple of the nominees, starting with Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms by Jim Smith.


Before you even open this 240 page book, you know it's going to be quite different. It has a comic book style which is really accessible to the 6-8 year old intended age group. Perfect for newer independent or reluctant readers, with short paragraphs of text and plenty of illustrations.


Jim Smith plays with words and encourages the reader to use intonation and expression. He stretches their understanding of sounds made by letter groups in a way that really works and definitely appeals to my 7 year old. He has already used 'Bleurgher' at least once when referring to a nutritious and delicious meal I lovingly prepared.


Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms is set in the future, where Colin landed out of the blue one day when hit by lightning. He was also transformed into a half boy, half rat, half TV at the same time. It's not a fact book.

If you missed out on previous Future Ratboy books (I'm quite sad to say we had), there is a full backstory page for you to catch up and meet all of the main characters. It makes fascinating reading. As Sci-Fi goes it really is quite spectacular, yet with some familiar concepts to keep us grounded, buying soap from a shop is one bizarre example. In the future they still pile displays far too precariously...


Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms is a great book and we highly recommend it. Chuckle out loud as much as laugh. Available to buy now rrp £6.99, currently £4.99 from the Scholastic Books website or from your local Scholastic Books School Book Club.

The Laugh Out Loud Awards, or Lollies, were created because Scholastic’s Kids & Family Reading Report found that two-thirds of children aged 6-17 looked for ‘books that make me laugh’ when choosing books for themselves. The winning book in each category will be decided solely by children’s votes.


The shortlist of 12 books was picked by a panel headed by Michael Rosen, and including CBBC presenter Katie Thistleton and The Sunday Times’ Children’s Books Editor, Nicolette Jones.

Voting closes on 8th December and the winner will be announced in January 2018.

You can find out more about the twelve books on the shortlist, as well as activity sheets, lesson plans and competitions, and vote for your favourite until 8th December on the Laugh Out Loud Awards website,

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book Finalists
Oi Dog by Kes Gray and Jim Field (Hodder Children’s Books)
Eat Your People by Lou Kuenzler and David Wojtowycz (Orchard Books)
Prince of Pants by Alan Macdonald and Sarah McIntyre (Scholastic)
Danny McGee Drinks the Sea by Andy Stanton and Neal Layton (Hodder Children’s Books)

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8 year olds Finalists
Thimble Monkey Superstar by Jon Blake and Martin Chatterton (Firefly Press)
Hamish and the Neverpeople by Danny Wallace and Jamie Littler (Simon and Schuster)
Eddy Stone and the Epic Holiday Mash-Up by Simon Cherry (Usborne)
Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms by Jim Smith (Egmont)

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13 year olds Finalists
I Don't Like Poetry by Joshua Seigal (Bloomsbury)
The Best Medicine by Christine Hamil (Little Island Books)
My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord by David Solomons and Laura Ellen Anderson (Nosy Crow) AniMalcolm by David Baddiel and Jim Field (Harper Collins)


We were sent our copy of Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms for review.

2 comments:

  1. What a keel review of a keeltastic book ;) Love all the illustrations, it looks very engaging!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :D You make me laugh so much - The boys will really laugh when they hear you use keel hahaha

      Delete

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