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katykelly's review against another edition
5.0
Third winner on the trot (or should that be trotter?) from David Baddiel.
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's family are NUTS about animals. Malcolm.... isn't. 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. But then he wakes up as an animal himself!!! Argh!
Over the course of the three-day trip, poor Malcolm inhabits various farm animal bodies, learning a little about their lives and abilities along the way, and gradually realising who it is he wants to be. And where. But can he get there?
A light and amusing read, Baddiel gives us an imaginative look at how cats climb and tortoises talk to each other - how Malcolm communicates cross-species is also cleverly done.
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.
Very funny, from the short-sighted teacher to the poor tortoises running after everyone else in mad dashes.
A good message at the end, and an easy read for ages 9 and above.
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's family are NUTS about animals. Malcolm.... isn't. 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. But then he wakes up as an animal himself!!! Argh!
Over the course of the three-day trip, poor Malcolm inhabits various farm animal bodies, learning a little about their lives and abilities along the way, and gradually realising who it is he wants to be. And where. But can he get there?
A light and amusing read, Baddiel gives us an imaginative look at how cats climb and tortoises talk to each other - how Malcolm communicates cross-species is also cleverly done.
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.
Very funny, from the short-sighted teacher to the poor tortoises running after everyone else in mad dashes.
A good message at the end, and an easy read for ages 9 and above.
mehsi's review against another edition
5.0
David Baddiel did it again, he wrote another magical book.
This time no Parent Agencies, no Controllers that will control people/animals, oh no, this time we are experiencing what it is like to be an animal, and not just one, but quite a few of them.
Say hello to Malcolm, he is our MC, and he doesn't like animals. He has his reasons, and I was nodding along, I could totally understand he may not be all that happy with animals. I understood his point that animals seemingly do nothing all day, just laze around, or do some weird animal thing. Of course, I am an animal fan myself, but I could still understand Malcolm's reasoning.
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.
Malcolm is a pretty fun character and I loved that he just wanted to know why he was alone in not liking animals, he kept pondering why everyone was loving it, yet he couldn't understand that love.
Throughout the book you also see him change as he understands more and more about animals, as he makes friends with them, as he hears their stories, as he sees just what they do for him.
I was also a bit worried about him near the end.
Because Malcolm is going to meet a goat that is very old, and may just be able to do magical things that will turn worlds upside down.
And thus enter the animals, and the transformation. Most of the book take place on the farm, and we see Malcolm make friends, transform in another animal, find out about what happened to him, and also has a jolly good time as he discovers that being an animal can be quite fun and delightful. A whole world opens up to him, and I laughed quite hard that he had to keep repeating the story over and over again, and had to ask for witnesses (the animals he was previous with).
The curse/spell? I had a laugh at what it entails. Dear heavens. You just have to hope you get the right animal then. :P
Later on the book gets even more excited as a race against time starts and Malcolm has to ask all his friends to help him out.
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. Plus I loved those last pages, that poor teacher, though I am sure he is happier now.
It was also fun to see Fred, Ellie, and Barry again!
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.
The book is also heavily illustrated and I just adored each and every illustration. They made the book really pop and made some of the scenes even more hilarious.
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 teacher? He never noticed that Malcolm was missing. The parents? How horrible that they would laugh over that event when they know Malcolm is around. 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. Basing all the presents on that one thing? Also not right. I feel that they should learn a bit more respect.
All in all though, I really liked this book, and I can't wait to see what David Baddiel will think up next. I would recommend this book to everyone who is need for a funny, animaltastic, magical book.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
This time no Parent Agencies, no Controllers that will control people/animals, oh no, this time we are experiencing what it is like to be an animal, and not just one, but quite a few of them.
Say hello to Malcolm, he is our MC, and he doesn't like animals. He has his reasons, and I was nodding along, I could totally understand he may not be all that happy with animals. I understood his point that animals seemingly do nothing all day, just laze around, or do some weird animal thing. Of course, I am an animal fan myself, but I could still understand Malcolm's reasoning.
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.
Malcolm is a pretty fun character and I loved that he just wanted to know why he was alone in not liking animals, he kept pondering why everyone was loving it, yet he couldn't understand that love.
Throughout the book you also see him change as he understands more and more about animals, as he makes friends with them, as he hears their stories, as he sees just what they do for him.
I was also a bit worried about him near the end.
Because Malcolm is going to meet a goat that is very old, and may just be able to do magical things that will turn worlds upside down.
And thus enter the animals, and the transformation. Most of the book take place on the farm, and we see Malcolm make friends, transform in another animal, find out about what happened to him, and also has a jolly good time as he discovers that being an animal can be quite fun and delightful. A whole world opens up to him, and I laughed quite hard that he had to keep repeating the story over and over again, and had to ask for witnesses (the animals he was previous with).
The curse/spell? I had a laugh at what it entails. Dear heavens. You just have to hope you get the right animal then. :P
Later on the book gets even more excited as a race against time starts and Malcolm has to ask all his friends to help him out.
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. Plus I loved those last pages, that poor teacher, though I am sure he is happier now.
It was also fun to see Fred, Ellie, and Barry again!
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.
The book is also heavily illustrated and I just adored each and every illustration. They made the book really pop and made some of the scenes even more hilarious.
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 teacher? He never noticed that Malcolm was missing. The parents? How horrible that they would laugh over that event when they know Malcolm is around. 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. Basing all the presents on that one thing? Also not right. I feel that they should learn a bit more respect.
All in all though, I really liked this book, and I can't wait to see what David Baddiel will think up next. I would recommend this book to everyone who is need for a funny, animaltastic, magical book.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
booklover11's review
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved this book. It's really funny. It's about a boy who hates animals but his family loves them. On a school trip to the farm, he speaks to a goat and he starts turning into new animals all the time. He soon realises how cool animals after after being a number of different animals.
zoe_x0x0's review
adventurous
challenging
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
jrollings's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
xsparky126x's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
booksandbeautifulthings18's review
5.0
Malcolm doesn’t like animals, which is a problem because his family love them! He is excited to learn about a school trip, that is until he realises that it’s to a farm...
I read this to my son and wow we both loved it so much! It was very well written and hilarious in parts and we really wanted to know what was going to happen next. David Baddiel is definitely one of our new favourite authors
I read this to my son and wow we both loved it so much! It was very well written and hilarious in parts and we really wanted to know what was going to happen next. David Baddiel is definitely one of our new favourite authors
ronn1eee's review
2.0
*SPOILER ALERT* I was really excited to get this book but was quite unimpressed during and after reading it because of the plot and how boring I found it. Malcolm basically turns into multiple different animals and can only speak their language. 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).
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