Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Like you, I can't really imagine David Baddeil as a children's book author but it sounds like a hit! My daughter (7) and I really enjoyed reading this about a boy that transforms into different animals at a farm he is at with school. The path of the story is an obvious one, but I loved how Baddiel takes Malcolm through various incarnations and lives, and gets the whole farm involved in the final push to get him where he needs to end up. The latest child in an exceptional class to have a supernatural mini-adventure is Malcolm: an animal-hating lad from a family who are animal-mad!

AniMalcolm by David Baddiel, Jim Field | Waterstones

I understood his point that animals seemingly do nothing all day, just laze around, or do some weird animal thing. From David Baddiel, the brightest new star of children’s books and winner of the LOLLIES award, comes a laugh-out-loud adventure for every child who ever wondered what it might be like to be a bit of an animal. In his excited-haste he didn't quite take enough notice of the location for his three days of freedom – Orwell Farm. Oh dear, no such luck - but perhaps the chance to go on the Year 6 trip will make up for his rubbish birthday present? We may also receive a small amount of commission from purchases of this book made vialinks in this post.So when he gets the worst birthday presents ever (have a guess) and then ends up on a school trip to a FARM, he never thought it could get worse. The wit on the page has been lifted to the stage, and Baddiel has his own children to thank for that. The six-strong cast, aided by Jacqueline Trousdale’s imaginative costume designs, deftly metamorphoses into an entertaining menagerie of variously shell-bearing, hoofed (cloven and not), woolly, feathered and poo-throwing creatures.

AniMalcolm by David Baddiel - A Book Review (AD) AniMalcolm by David Baddiel - A Book Review (AD)

I think the reason why I disliked it was because it's more of a 7-9-year-old's book (maybe a bit younger too) and I read it at 11 (12 now).

It has some really important points to make about parents and money; about knowing what you are; about feeling different to other people, but all told in a humorous and engaging way.

AniMalcolm by David Baddiel | Goodreads

However, since the number of books he has to read for school has increased he has stopped wanting to read purely for fun. Almost all of the book is from Malcolm's POV, but we also see his Mum and the teacher's POV, I quite liked that those POVs were also added. Although the start and part of the end might not be as fun to read, the rest of it couldn't be better. Famous works of art can be found in the illustrations, but the people have been replaced by gorillas. Bonkers as the situation is, much of the comedy derives from Baddiel’s sharp observations of ordinary life - the animals share lots of human characteristics – as well as his skill in setting up and delivering funny lines.There are a number of footnotes which include funny anecdotes or explanations, and it makes for somewhat stilted reading. He manages to tap into the 'wish fulfilment' genre brilliantly each time, from changing your parents, to having a controller that works on people, and now - turning into another animal! Malcolm is the only member of his family not to love animals (possibly due to an unpleasant experience with a monkey and its poo on a day out at the zoo), until a meeting with a mystic goat on the year six trip turns him into a series of different creatures, including tortoise, cat and pig. AniMalcolm is by far the longest book my son has ever read (355 pages – although quite big writing), so he hasn’t finished it yet, but he’s enjoying it and all the animals have really captured his imagination.

David Baddiel Collection 8 Books Set (The Boy Who Got

The ending was fabulous, and I was really happy, though I was a bit surprised that people fell for that excuse so easily, I wouldn't have bought it, oh no, not at all, even if I was delighted at seeing my kid again.We cover cultural events, family days out, and eating out in Newcastle, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham, Teesside, as well as travel, short-breaks and holidays further afield. Malcolm is about to go a school trip (something he should be quite happy about as his parents really scraped together the money, but I can imagine that no boy is all too happy to have to spend days on a farm with stinky goat cheese), and on that trip he is going to discover that being an animal is more than it seems. Plus the fact they totally didn't give a poop about his feelings on animals and that they should just have gone for another present. The only two things I didn't like, and they were things I also didn't particularly liked in his other books were the fact that the adults were just idiots or just should be shaken a bit harder to get some sense in them. The language is pitched brilliantly for the targeted reading age - words are not too hard and confusing, nor are there any overly long descriptions.