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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Sick and tired of school show-offs?
Mean girls ruining your day?
A mysterious illness sweeping your town … ?
Being the world’s only arty ‘sort-of-superhero’ is never boring. I’ve got a lot on my plate: as well as making comics with my best friend, Beeks, and attempting to avoid the MEAN girls, I’m also trying to work out why EVERYONE seems to be getting sick. Maybe some artistic inspiration from Botticelli will help me get to the bottom of the mystery …
It’s not long since TRIXIE PICKLE ART AVENGER and Trixie’s school has just started Money Month. It’s supposed to teach the children about business and finance with teachers giving out Wormwood bucks to reward students and the student with the most Wormwood bucks at the end of the month will win a mystery prize. Trixie is suspicious of the competition and thinks that it’s just a scam to get everyone to behave but when Mrs Harris (who teaches business studies and maths) uses it as an excuse to put Trixie into detention, Trixie decides that it’s time for her first Art Avenger mission of the term …
Meanwhile, a strange illness is spreading through Wormwood town. Nicknamed ‘Wormwood fever’ it makes people vomit and suffer from diarrhoea and some people have had such bad cases that they’ve had to go to hospital. When rumours spread that it’s caused by drinking tap water, everyone stampedes to buy bottled water, which is great news for the odious Spencer Smedley, whose equally odious parents own a bottled water company and are making bags of money from the situation.
While on a very boring trip to visit a bank, Trixie realises she’s seen something that indicates just what’s actually happened to Wormwood’s tap water. The problem is that there are so many Art Avenger missions that she needs to do - including against the mean girl Fire Angels at school and her younger brother Dylan - that she can’t possibly do it all by herself. She needs a sidekick. The only problem is that the last time she tried to confide in her best friend Weeks, he didn’t believe her. Can she persuade him of the truth this time?
Olaf Falafel’s self-illustrated funny novel sequel for readers aged 8+ is a genuinely hilarious affair that combines Trixie’s love of art with her desire to get revenge on those who have wronged her. I particularly enjoyed the mini fact files on artists and how Trixie incorporates them in her pranks while her cynicism is very entertaining. I hadn’t read the first book but will rectify that mistake and I hope there is more in this series.
I picked this up without realising that it was a sequel. Falafel gives you a summary of everything that’s happened to date, but in a deliciously tongue in cheek way also makes very clear that this summary is not sufficient and you need to read book 1. I quite liked that and also enjoyed the illustrated interventions of Geraldine and Gerald Puffin from the publishers who comment on what’s happening. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed all of Falafel’s illustrations which all work to either complement jokes in the text or add new jokes on top.
Trixie is an entertaining main character. She has a natural cynicism (notably when it comes to the true purpose of Wormwood bucks at school) that will appeal to more mature readers but genuinely values her friendship with the nerdy Beeks (even if he does have an irritating habit of never being on time). Also good fun is her view of her parents - notably her dad with his extra loud sneezes and her mum who sides with younger brother Dylan no matter what.
Falafel is very clever in this book because he weaves in little fact sections about real life artists such as Salvador Dali and Damien Hirst and then has Trixie’s Art Avenger activities inspired by the same. I learned about a couple of new-to-me artists in this book (notably Cornelia Parker, Yayoi Kusama and Kehinde Wiley) as well as known-to-me artists like Botticelli and Damien Hirst, all of which is fabulous and hopefully will appeal to the target readers regardless of whether they previously enjoyed art.
The final thing to say is that the book is genuinely funny. There were a number of moments that actually had me laughing out loud - specifically the symptoms of Wormwood fever - and Trixie’s Art Avenger pranks are similarly amusing and cleverly done, especially those that do not go to plan. It’s very easy to get humour wrong for this age group but I think Falafel gets the mix of obligatory fart and poo jokes (which I am not disparaging at all because I do love a good fat and poo joke) with smarter pranks and tricks just right so that there is something for everyone.
All in all I thought this was clever, funny and had a main character you can root for. There’s also an interesting set-up for further books given Trixie’s new side kick and her discovery that Miss Handley is part of a collective of artists who are doing some really weird work. I would definitely be keen to read more in this series and will be going back to check out Trixie’s adventures in book 1.
The Verdict:
Olaf Falafel’s self-illustrated funny novel sequel for readers aged 8+ is a genuinely hilarious affair that combines Trixie’s love of art with her desire to get revenge on those who have wronged her. I particularly enjoyed the mini fact files on artists and how Trixie incorporates them in her pranks while her cynicism is very entertaining. I hadn’t read the first book but will rectify that mistake and I hope there is more in this series.
TRIXIE PICKLE ART AVENGER - TOXIC TAKEDOWN was released in the United Kingdom on 4th May 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Mean girls ruining your day?
A mysterious illness sweeping your town … ?
Being the world’s only arty ‘sort-of-superhero’ is never boring. I’ve got a lot on my plate: as well as making comics with my best friend, Beeks, and attempting to avoid the MEAN girls, I’m also trying to work out why EVERYONE seems to be getting sick. Maybe some artistic inspiration from Botticelli will help me get to the bottom of the mystery …
It’s not long since TRIXIE PICKLE ART AVENGER and Trixie’s school has just started Money Month. It’s supposed to teach the children about business and finance with teachers giving out Wormwood bucks to reward students and the student with the most Wormwood bucks at the end of the month will win a mystery prize. Trixie is suspicious of the competition and thinks that it’s just a scam to get everyone to behave but when Mrs Harris (who teaches business studies and maths) uses it as an excuse to put Trixie into detention, Trixie decides that it’s time for her first Art Avenger mission of the term …
Meanwhile, a strange illness is spreading through Wormwood town. Nicknamed ‘Wormwood fever’ it makes people vomit and suffer from diarrhoea and some people have had such bad cases that they’ve had to go to hospital. When rumours spread that it’s caused by drinking tap water, everyone stampedes to buy bottled water, which is great news for the odious Spencer Smedley, whose equally odious parents own a bottled water company and are making bags of money from the situation.
While on a very boring trip to visit a bank, Trixie realises she’s seen something that indicates just what’s actually happened to Wormwood’s tap water. The problem is that there are so many Art Avenger missions that she needs to do - including against the mean girl Fire Angels at school and her younger brother Dylan - that she can’t possibly do it all by herself. She needs a sidekick. The only problem is that the last time she tried to confide in her best friend Weeks, he didn’t believe her. Can she persuade him of the truth this time?
Olaf Falafel’s self-illustrated funny novel sequel for readers aged 8+ is a genuinely hilarious affair that combines Trixie’s love of art with her desire to get revenge on those who have wronged her. I particularly enjoyed the mini fact files on artists and how Trixie incorporates them in her pranks while her cynicism is very entertaining. I hadn’t read the first book but will rectify that mistake and I hope there is more in this series.
I picked this up without realising that it was a sequel. Falafel gives you a summary of everything that’s happened to date, but in a deliciously tongue in cheek way also makes very clear that this summary is not sufficient and you need to read book 1. I quite liked that and also enjoyed the illustrated interventions of Geraldine and Gerald Puffin from the publishers who comment on what’s happening. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed all of Falafel’s illustrations which all work to either complement jokes in the text or add new jokes on top.
Trixie is an entertaining main character. She has a natural cynicism (notably when it comes to the true purpose of Wormwood bucks at school) that will appeal to more mature readers but genuinely values her friendship with the nerdy Beeks (even if he does have an irritating habit of never being on time). Also good fun is her view of her parents - notably her dad with his extra loud sneezes and her mum who sides with younger brother Dylan no matter what.
Falafel is very clever in this book because he weaves in little fact sections about real life artists such as Salvador Dali and Damien Hirst and then has Trixie’s Art Avenger activities inspired by the same. I learned about a couple of new-to-me artists in this book (notably Cornelia Parker, Yayoi Kusama and Kehinde Wiley) as well as known-to-me artists like Botticelli and Damien Hirst, all of which is fabulous and hopefully will appeal to the target readers regardless of whether they previously enjoyed art.
The final thing to say is that the book is genuinely funny. There were a number of moments that actually had me laughing out loud - specifically the symptoms of Wormwood fever - and Trixie’s Art Avenger pranks are similarly amusing and cleverly done, especially those that do not go to plan. It’s very easy to get humour wrong for this age group but I think Falafel gets the mix of obligatory fart and poo jokes (which I am not disparaging at all because I do love a good fat and poo joke) with smarter pranks and tricks just right so that there is something for everyone.
All in all I thought this was clever, funny and had a main character you can root for. There’s also an interesting set-up for further books given Trixie’s new side kick and her discovery that Miss Handley is part of a collective of artists who are doing some really weird work. I would definitely be keen to read more in this series and will be going back to check out Trixie’s adventures in book 1.
The Verdict:
Olaf Falafel’s self-illustrated funny novel sequel for readers aged 8+ is a genuinely hilarious affair that combines Trixie’s love of art with her desire to get revenge on those who have wronged her. I particularly enjoyed the mini fact files on artists and how Trixie incorporates them in her pranks while her cynicism is very entertaining. I hadn’t read the first book but will rectify that mistake and I hope there is more in this series.
TRIXIE PICKLE ART AVENGER - TOXIC TAKEDOWN was released in the United Kingdom on 4th May 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
