Roarsome (Joel Slack-Smith, illus Rebel Challenger, Scholastic)

Roarsome is the first book in a new illustrated junior fiction series by TV comedy writer Joel Slack-Smith. Like many kids, Walter wants the latest tech for his birthday—a nitro-powered drone. His parents couldn’t possibly understand, though. Instead, they give Walter an old lion-shaped pillow that smells like wee. (And, to top it off, his birthday is on New Year’s Day, when his family often forgets!) Naturally, Walter is unimpressed, until Roars (the lion pillow) comes to life, demanding one night of extreme fun. This werewolf lion-pillow (who was peed on by a werewolf, giving him the power of transformation) is endearing and hilarious in his problem-solving attempts. With sarcastic footnotes throughout, the story is silly beyond belief, with every catastrophe wildly unpredictable, yet funny and approachable. At times the absurdity is disjointed and improbable, with the use of ‘and thens’ giving the story the quality of a strange garbled dream, as it moves from a mini-golf course to a hot-air balloon powered by farts to an alphabetically organised feast on the contents of the fridge. Page-turning illustrations from Rebel Challenger bring the action to life, making it difficult to guess what will come next. For readers aged 7+, this is an action-packed story for fans of The Bad Guys, and the Treehouse and Real Pigeons series, at a decent length without being too much of a step up from these titles.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Clare Millar is a writer, editor and children's bookseller. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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