There are moments of being a parent that take me by surprise, such as opening a Christmas present from my five year old daughter and finding a second hand children's book (in rough condition) aimed at 6-10 year olds. It was a giveaway from her school, and she was very proud of it. After failing to gently suggest that maybe the book was more suited to someone of her age range, and being heavily guilt tripped with "It was a special gift for YOU", I finally resigned myself to read it. Well, what can I say, it's a chaotic children's book full of scribble, cartoon doodles, and wacky font. A tome for the modern distracted child no doubt, as devoid of narrative substance as a Netflix cartoon generated by AI. What a vile, judgemental, ungrateful father, one might think? Quite so!
The book is in a series about a boy called Tom Gates who has a friend called Derek, an annoying sister called Delia, is in a band called DogZombies, and does and thinks lots of stereotypical things for a boy of his age. There isn't anything particularly clever or interesting done with the zany format, but I must stress again, I'm not the target audience. My daughter will read it next (she wouldn't let me read it with her) and I'll see what she thinks. I really don't have much more to write about this book, it's about a kid with an active imagination, less than average academic ability, and rather too much disrespect towards his parents and teachers. One of the friends is also clearly neurodivergent, for which he is mocked.
Rating: 2/5
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