Fiction 9 years and up

NZ Writer  & Illustrator

Donovan Bixley

Monkey Boy

Scholastic NZ    2014  $17.99pb 288pp

ISBN 978 1 7754 3186 2

Themes: Comic books (part) Ghosts and ghouls/ Napoleonic Wars/ Storms at sea/ Warships 

 

Donovan - Source unknown

It is the year 1803 and Jimmy Grimholt is the youngest sailor aboard the warship HMS Fury that is bound for a bloodthirsty and blood curdling battle. This is a no holes barred account of Jimmy’s adventures (including being able to see the dead) and is not for a fainthearted child or conservative librarian or teacher***. Some of the incidents may remind the (older) reader of the early Peter Jackson splatter movies!  Told partly in comic book form and partly in text, it is a book that is fortunately well bound, as it will be well thumbed and poured over. My own copy was just stopped in time today from being smuggled out the door by a holidaying child.

*** Examine before buying.

Year 5 up/ Age 9 up