SIMON JAMES GREEN - Our 2020/2021 Author Penpal
Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award
ISBN: 9780702303623
Pub Date: 3rd September 2020
Publisher: Scholastic
Imprint: Scholastic
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 272
A hilarious middle-grade novel about one boy's quest to get rid
of a ridiculous amount of bad luck!
After a traumatic run-in with the fortune teller
from a visiting funfair - thanks to an unfortunately-timed
sneeze - Riley finds himself CURSED.
Life as he knows it quickly becomes a catalogue of disasters
- from wetting himself onstage
during the school show, accidentally supergluing himself
to his classmates and ruining the
school football team's sponsorship deal, to flooding
his house and losing class 4's
pet rabbit - Riley knows the bad luck is out to get him.
Enter new kid: Brad Chicago. He's super-cool, well-groomed
and stylish, with an excellent stationery collection. And for
some reason he wants to be Riley's friend. Can Riley
get rid of the curse before Brad discovers he's
a walking disaster?
Riley is taken to the funfair by his mum, but as he really doesn’t like fairground rides, he decides that the best use of his money is to have his fortune told. After a disaster in the tent, the fortune teller curses Riley. From this moment on, Riley believes all his bad luck is caused by the curse. If this isn’t bad enough, Brad – the super cool, new boy is school – would make the ideal best friend, so Riley is frantic to break the curse. Unfortunately, Riley’s good ideas just seem to make the situation worse and he is often oblivious to the chaos he is causing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this hilarious adventure. Riley is not your usual male protagonist - with his love of musical theatre and dance – it is truly refreshing as not all boys are interested in football. I’m so looking forward to hearing the children’s views on this fabulous book, as I think that it will be hugely popular in our library.
What we thought of Riley?
This book is AMAZING! I would recommend this book to any children over the age of 8, as children love to laugh and this book is HILARIOUS! I couldn’t stop reading it (I read in two days) and it had a very unexpected ending. Alexsei Bitscoff’s illustrations are amazing too and I loved how he made Brad look so cool and Riley look so Derpy (no offence Riley). I loved this book so much! (Reviewed by Chloë, aged 10 & 11/12)
A laugh out loud book and it's brilliant! The first sentence is all you need to claw you in. I loved the part when a dog came and pinched his shorts. People who are 8+ and like hilarious things (like peeing your pants or farting), as well as people who like crazy and weird things will enjoy this book. (reviewed by Jake, aged 9)
A boy named Riley gets cursed and goes on a mission to undo it. The santa part and when he pees himself is very funny. I think children aged 8+ would really enjoy it, as it's funny and dramatic. I would definitely rate it 5 out of 5. (reviewed by Gaby, aged 9)
I found this book very funny. The thing I liked most was that Madam Olgar was wearing a pink jumpsuit, pink flip flops and she was chewing chewing gum. I also loved that Riley hid salt in his underwear. I loved this book so much that if I could rate this book out of 10, I would rate it 11! (reviewed by Poppy, aged 10)
