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mat_tobin's review
4.0
Never did the course of true love run smooth and it’s even more bumpy when the whole affair is one sided and one person will do almost anything to get someone to notice them. Such is the premise of Montgomery’s ‘Rock Bottom’; a carnivalesque humorous parody of a play within a play within a play.
Nick has long been besotted with the outwardly-beautiful Jessie in his class but she hasn’t a clue he exists. What can he do to win her over? Why audition for the lead role in the school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream of course! She’ll made for the main female role and if he can bag that leading male then true love is bound to happen.
But then Nick has never really even been noticed by the drama teacher either and he’s hardly got the charisma required…so the role of Bottom it is. You’d think playing the role of a fool in a play would be enough to deter Nick but this is not the case. With the help of his friends and other school outcasts, Nick has an idea to turn the play on its head and win the heart of the girl he fancies.
The pace and humour of Montgomery’s addition to the Barrington Stoke collection reminded me of Pat Hutchins’ series of school stories (such as [b:Follow That Bus|4243509|Follow That Bus|Pat Hutchins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344949903l/4243509._SY75_.jpg|630907]). Frazzled drama teachers, wacky ideas executed by children and general chaos make for some wonderful humour and there’s even a nice message about friendship at the end too.
Great fun and all presented into Barrington Stoke's dyslexia-friendly font and paper which helps reduce visual strain. Fortunately for us, Ross has more in this series in the pipeline.
Nick has long been besotted with the outwardly-beautiful Jessie in his class but she hasn’t a clue he exists. What can he do to win her over? Why audition for the lead role in the school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream of course! She’ll made for the main female role and if he can bag that leading male then true love is bound to happen.
But then Nick has never really even been noticed by the drama teacher either and he’s hardly got the charisma required…so the role of Bottom it is. You’d think playing the role of a fool in a play would be enough to deter Nick but this is not the case. With the help of his friends and other school outcasts, Nick has an idea to turn the play on its head and win the heart of the girl he fancies.
The pace and humour of Montgomery’s addition to the Barrington Stoke collection reminded me of Pat Hutchins’ series of school stories (such as [b:Follow That Bus|4243509|Follow That Bus|Pat Hutchins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344949903l/4243509._SY75_.jpg|630907]). Frazzled drama teachers, wacky ideas executed by children and general chaos make for some wonderful humour and there’s even a nice message about friendship at the end too.
Great fun and all presented into Barrington Stoke's dyslexia-friendly font and paper which helps reduce visual strain. Fortunately for us, Ross has more in this series in the pipeline.
bluewithstars's review
5.0
Absolutely superb! Laugh out loud fun from the first page. Wonderful one liners and links to the original play. I will most definitely be using this is my class, a perfect short read.
charlottesomewhere's review
4.0
S and I loved this one. It was a brilliant, fun read and we both laughed a lot.
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