Monsters Inc meets Alice In Wonderland in this fantastically imaginative adventure.
Joey has little self-belief. She’s sure, as a group from her school set off on a trip to a local museum, that she’s destroyed her team’s chances of winning a competition with her poor spelling and messy handwriting. The last thing she needs is to meet Harry – who used to go to her school and make mean comments about her until he moved to a private school. Stranger things than Harry are happening though. All kinds of minor annoyances are plaguing the trip and only Joey notices the strange monsters following the group around.
When Joey follows Harry to see where he is sneaking off to she finds herself kidnapped by three monsters and taken to a land where colourful monsters live in fear of a tyrannical king but carry out his work. Can Joey believe in the superpowers she has in order to get herself and Harry back to Earth uneaten?
I loved how this book balances humour and kid appeal with excellent pacing and questions that keep the reader hooked until the end. The strangeness of the new world isn’t piled on to the reader all at once, but new information keeps the world just wonderful enough. I particularly liked Mum – you wait and see how little monsters are born – and the King. He is as bonkers and tyrannical as the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland but with a twist …
Foulkes appears to instinctively understand what young readers will relate to and find interesting. Many things that Joey and Harry think and feel demonstrate true empathy for pressures felt by young people whilst their quirks and behaviours make them truly unique characters. I loved how Joey narrates the world to herself via Boo’s News – which she also creates as a real world newspaper with her friends. Her brain works so fast that her spelling and handwriting just can’t keep up with her huge levels of creativity. Meanwhile Harry makes mean comments as if he thinks he is better than everyone else but squeezes a stress ball.
The monsters are fabulous characters too and have more in common with their human captives than readers might initially expect.
A brilliantly paced adventure that will keep readers hooked, giggling and gasping in suspense well past bedtime.
Ministry of Mischief by Alex Foulkes is available now from Simon And Schuster UK. RRP. £7.99 (Available now)
