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Wild Thing ISBN: 9781407137957
Barnes, Emma and Littler, Jamie
Published by Scholastic, 2014
Josephine really is a 'wild thing'. Younger sister (she's five) to Kate, she lives up to her nickname in spades! There's no sibling rivalry in this relationship; it's more like a sibling horror story though a very funny one. The two girls live with their dad, a pop song writer and one-time band member, their mum having died when Wild Thing was very small. Gran helps out, and there is very little made of the death of the mum. Wild thing has decided she will be a pop star and constantly plays air guitar while singing 'her song', one of her dad's compositions called (you guessed it) 'Wild Thing'. From gluing a sardine tin to her head to knocking over a stack of cereals in the supermarket, Wild Thing will always be expected to do anything that is wrong, and the awful thing is that she will be going to Kate's school in the autumn. What could be worse! When school begins, Wild Thing refuses to sit down for the story with the rest of the children, refuses to sing except her own song, and paints her hair pink before cutting a big chunk out because the teacher says she shouldn't have painted it. Furthermore, she says the teacher is boring. Gran and Kate can foresee that the teacher will be constantly wanting 'little words' about Wild Thing's behaviour. But in Kate's mind, the worst thing that Wild Thing does is to start biting people's bottoms, including hers, and this is partly Kate' fault. Bottoms become a 'thing' with Wild Thing, and she loves finding out different words for them. The list of her transgressions would make this an impossibly long review, but the interesting and fun thing about this book is that while Kate and Gran and their Dad are often bemused, irritated and horrified at Wild Thing's doings, they are also a loving family and are doing their best to control a really difficult and unusual child. Children with more ordinary siblings may thank their lucky stars that their brothers and sisters are not so bad as Wild Thing! The black and white comic-style illustrations add to the fun.
Age: 9+