Synopsis Agatha Bilke is on a disastrous French exchange. Her host Demone Canard is even worse than she is. She puts dog food in with Agatha's washing and posts her picture up on the internet claiming she is a wanted criminal ...

Review This is the third book in the series about Agatha Bilke, the most horrendous child you could have the misfortune to meet. The story is sheer glorious anarchy. The plot is mind-bogglingly complex (I'm not even going to attempt to explain it) and yet Pattenden ensures that the entertaining lunacy never tips over into confusion for the reader.

 I loved Pattenden's style, which brims with energy, irreverent humour and contains witty send-ups of common cliches and metaphors. There is a running joke consisting of words or phrases that appear to have been crossed out, but which are still clearly legible, followed by the word or phrase that replaces them. Sometimes the word which is crossed out is a misspelling of the 'correct' word; the joke being that the misspelling forms a correctly spelt alternative word which throws the scene being described into further surrealism. However, sometimes the crossed out word appears to have been chosen at random for the bloody-minded hell of being subversive - rather in the typical manner of the book's heroine, in fact!

The story is set in France so it is likely that children might glean a general impression of the country but the point of this book is joyful silliness rather than education. In short, it is an antidote to all things sensible and everything, including the glossary, is written with tongue firmly in cheek!

2008-08-31