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Junior
Bloomsbury
Paperback £5.99
ISBN: 0747559066
Reviewed by Evie Mcleod
[Armadillo 6.3 Autumn 2004]
The quote by the Financial Times on the front cover of this book screams "Roald Dahl meets Jacqueline Wilson!" I agree this is the perfect description for the witty portrayal of Emma Barnes' cleverly exaggerated characters and the situations they find themselves in.
This is a book with not one main character, but four. Emma Barnes is playing an inventive game of vice-versa where, Sam is (for me anyway) the anti-hero and the three Griswald children, who by conventional standards are wholly undesirable, are in fact our heroes. Sam, a shy, lonely boy, mollycoddled by his mother has the misfortune of the delinquent Griswalds becoming his new neighbours. They are loud, defensive and definitely a little dangerous, but they are the most fun Sam has ever had in his life.
The exaggeration of all the characters, but Sam and his mother make for an interesting mix of oil with water and the book starts out engaging the reader. Emma Barnes tackles issues of bullying, the dysfunctional family and defying the rules of convention sensitively and with a sparkling humour. This is a perceptive insight into the likes and dislikes children often feel towards their best friends and how an unlikely friendship can be unexpectedly satisfying.
The only real problem I found with this book was its length. It's fifty pages too long and three quarters of the way through I found myself losing interest and struggling to finish. Perhaps there is only so much one can take of the Griswalds.