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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
It’s me … Nina Peanut.
I’m Nina Peanut: a famous megastar, mystery-solver extraordinaire and extremely kind and patient big sister to the world’s most annoying brother.
Guess who is a ghost and is living right here in my school? It’s Lady Deborah from our history lesson, and she is stuck in her own shoe.
Watch as Brian and I film our investigations to find out what she’s doing there and how we can set her free. I’m also battling Megan Dunne to become class captain - vote for me, because who is more of a ghost expert than I am? Answer: hardly anyone!
It’s several weeks after NINA PEANUT IS AMAZING.
Nina and her best friends Brian and Ovaltina are now friends of sorts with the awful Megan Dunne, even though this seems to mean in practice that she wants them to do what she says and paying her attention all the time. When an afternoon of making churros with Ovaltina’s Spanish does not go as Megan wants, she soon reverts to looking for groupies and starts her own Bookgletube channel again. Things only get worse when Nina decides to stand for class captain against Megan, who makes it clear that she will do whatever it takes to win.
Nina is distracted though by some artefacts that Mr Harrison borrows from Snoozeton Museum, which includes a shoe from Lady Deborah of Dozyville Manor. Inspired by Boogletoob’s ghost-hunting Grimson Kids she becomes convinced that the shoe is haunted and that she needs to find a way to set her free. With a skeptical Brian and Ovaltina in tow, she sets out to become a ghost expert while convincing her classmates that she’s not weirdly obsessed with monkey bottoms …
The second in Sarah Bowie’s self-illustrated humorous graphic novel for readers aged 9+ is a well-constructed, fun affair filled with verbal and visual jokes. There’s a useful summary at the front if you haven’t read book 1 and Nina is such a well drawn character that you root for her, especially against the awful Megan. Certainly there’s more than enough here for me to want to read book 1 and I look forward to seeing what Bowie does next.
Although I hadn’t read NINA PEANUT IS AMAZING, Bowie starts the book with a really useful breakdown of what happened so it’s easy to understand her home set up and her frenemy status with Megan. Nina has a great narrative voice and I enjoyed the way Bowie has her describe things - there’s a great sense of her enthusiasm for Lady Deborah’s story even as she allows both her imagination and her nerves to sometimes get ahead of her. Brian and Ovaltina are great foils for her, but Megan is a really wonderful creation - a completely self-absorbed monster who is determined to become famous and be worshipped but who sometimes has moments of self awareness. I also thought that Nina’s home life was pretty believable, especially as she feels sidelined by her little brother who is - to be fair - pretty annoying.
The illustrations are excellent fun and work very well with the text. Bowie has a real gift for the silly and I loved how she has illustrations comment on what’s happening or make observations with the monkeys with their bottoms being a bid personal favourite just because it’s so ridiculous.
The set-piece funny scenes work really well, my favourite being a scene on a coach during a school trip to the Museum when the free juice that Megan’s being giving out to try and win votes has a very unfortunate effect on all who drink it.
Overall it’s a fun book and one that’s perfect for more reluctant readers because the illustrations complement the text so well. I will definitely be checking out NINA PEANUT IS AMAZING and am really looking forward to seeing what Bowie produces next.
The Verdict:
The second in Sarah Bowie’s self-illustrated humorous graphic novel for readers aged 9+ is a well-constructed, fun affair filled with verbal and visual jokes. There’s a useful summary at the front if you haven’t read book 1 and Nina is such a well drawn character that you root for her, especially against the awful Megan. Certainly there’s more than enough here for me to want to read book 1 and I look forward to seeing what Bowie does next.
NINA PEANUT MEGA MYSTERY SOLVER was released in the United Kingdom on 26th September 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
I’m Nina Peanut: a famous megastar, mystery-solver extraordinaire and extremely kind and patient big sister to the world’s most annoying brother.
Guess who is a ghost and is living right here in my school? It’s Lady Deborah from our history lesson, and she is stuck in her own shoe.
Watch as Brian and I film our investigations to find out what she’s doing there and how we can set her free. I’m also battling Megan Dunne to become class captain - vote for me, because who is more of a ghost expert than I am? Answer: hardly anyone!
It’s several weeks after NINA PEANUT IS AMAZING.
Nina and her best friends Brian and Ovaltina are now friends of sorts with the awful Megan Dunne, even though this seems to mean in practice that she wants them to do what she says and paying her attention all the time. When an afternoon of making churros with Ovaltina’s Spanish does not go as Megan wants, she soon reverts to looking for groupies and starts her own Bookgletube channel again. Things only get worse when Nina decides to stand for class captain against Megan, who makes it clear that she will do whatever it takes to win.
Nina is distracted though by some artefacts that Mr Harrison borrows from Snoozeton Museum, which includes a shoe from Lady Deborah of Dozyville Manor. Inspired by Boogletoob’s ghost-hunting Grimson Kids she becomes convinced that the shoe is haunted and that she needs to find a way to set her free. With a skeptical Brian and Ovaltina in tow, she sets out to become a ghost expert while convincing her classmates that she’s not weirdly obsessed with monkey bottoms …
The second in Sarah Bowie’s self-illustrated humorous graphic novel for readers aged 9+ is a well-constructed, fun affair filled with verbal and visual jokes. There’s a useful summary at the front if you haven’t read book 1 and Nina is such a well drawn character that you root for her, especially against the awful Megan. Certainly there’s more than enough here for me to want to read book 1 and I look forward to seeing what Bowie does next.
Although I hadn’t read NINA PEANUT IS AMAZING, Bowie starts the book with a really useful breakdown of what happened so it’s easy to understand her home set up and her frenemy status with Megan. Nina has a great narrative voice and I enjoyed the way Bowie has her describe things - there’s a great sense of her enthusiasm for Lady Deborah’s story even as she allows both her imagination and her nerves to sometimes get ahead of her. Brian and Ovaltina are great foils for her, but Megan is a really wonderful creation - a completely self-absorbed monster who is determined to become famous and be worshipped but who sometimes has moments of self awareness. I also thought that Nina’s home life was pretty believable, especially as she feels sidelined by her little brother who is - to be fair - pretty annoying.
The illustrations are excellent fun and work very well with the text. Bowie has a real gift for the silly and I loved how she has illustrations comment on what’s happening or make observations with the monkeys with their bottoms being a bid personal favourite just because it’s so ridiculous.
The set-piece funny scenes work really well, my favourite being a scene on a coach during a school trip to the Museum when the free juice that Megan’s being giving out to try and win votes has a very unfortunate effect on all who drink it.
Overall it’s a fun book and one that’s perfect for more reluctant readers because the illustrations complement the text so well. I will definitely be checking out NINA PEANUT IS AMAZING and am really looking forward to seeing what Bowie produces next.
The Verdict:
The second in Sarah Bowie’s self-illustrated humorous graphic novel for readers aged 9+ is a well-constructed, fun affair filled with verbal and visual jokes. There’s a useful summary at the front if you haven’t read book 1 and Nina is such a well drawn character that you root for her, especially against the awful Megan. Certainly there’s more than enough here for me to want to read book 1 and I look forward to seeing what Bowie does next.
NINA PEANUT MEGA MYSTERY SOLVER was released in the United Kingdom on 26th September 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
