Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb

For Grade Levels 2 - 5; Ages 7 - 10. Lexile Reading Measure: 480

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4

Once again, Horrid Henry lives up to his name. Each of these easy chapter books contains four episodes of the boy's escapades. Selfish and greedy, he battles with his teachers, cheats in a reading contest, and ruins a cousin's wedding. In one of the funniest segments, he is pitted against his family's houseguest, Mean Margaret, whose behavior is even more atrocious than his own. The irreverent humor is similar to that found in Roald Dahl's books or Jack Gantos's "Rotten Ralph" series. Ross's cartoon drawings are a perfect match for the protagonist's mischievous personality. There is not much character growth here; Henry remains unrepentantly horrid, and the other child characters (Perfect Peter, Clever Clare, Rude Ralph, etc.) are all one-sided. Though adults may wish for Henry to get reprimanded more sternly, kids will love reading the laugh-out-loud funny stories about someone whose behavior is even worse than their own.-Jackie Partch, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

Francesca Simon was born in the United States and attended both Yale and Oxford universities. For ten years she worked as a freelance journalist. She now writes fulltime and has had many books published including the bestselling Horrid Henry series and several picture books. She lives in North London, England, with her husband, Martin, and her son, Josh.