Great book for 6-11s... "The Abominators and My Panty Wanty Woos!"

I run a children's book club at my library, and recently, we were lucky enough to have a visit from a great up-and-coming children's author, Jenny Smith. She's the author of The Abominators, a really funny new series for 6-11 year olds that is perfect for fans of Horrid Henry or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

The Abominators are a gang of the naughtiest children in school. There's Mucker, Boogster, Cheesy and Bob (she's the girl), and they love nothing more than to play practical jokes on the teachers, and cause mayhem throughout the school. But their lives are turned upside down by the new boy at school: Cecil Trumptington-Potts, the poshest - and nicest - boy they've ever had the misfortune to meet. He's polite, he's odd, and he wears frilly, girly "panty wanty woos"! Cecil immediately wants to befriend the gang, and will do anything to be allowed to join.

And that's just as well, because he can't join unless he completes three near-impossible challenges. The Abominators are sure he won't manage it, but they don't know Cecil...

The Abominators may get the series title (and fair enough, because it's a good name!), but they never really became fleshed out in the first book, to my mind. Each character is summed up in a couple of sentences, and don't really progress from there. But that's alright, because their main roles are to be foils for Cecil, as well as people for him to aspire to - and it's Cecil that the books belong to, because he truly is laugh-out-loud comedy gold. Cecil owns (and wrestles ) a pet bear named Boris. His father is a bankrupt aristocrat with the longest beard in the world. And the pair of them make the story zap with comic energy.

The stories are enriched by brilliant illustrations by Sam Hearn, whose work I can imagine adorning many more book series before too long. They're full of madcap humour of their own, and compliment the story perfectly.

I've only read the first story so far - The Abominators and my Panty Wanty Woos (I read it all in one day during my breaks at work, but my afternoon break ended with about five pages left! So at the very end of the day, when everyone else was just about to get their things ready, I snuck into the toilet so I could finish it! Thankfully no one saw my panty wanty woos!) - but the sequels, The Abominators in the Wild, and The Abominators and the Forces of Evil have also been released this year, and I'm looking forward to reading them. But what really matters is that several of the kids from Chatterbooks have read the series, and absolutely love them. Not just because they've met the author (though they're thrilled about that, too), but because the series is really REALLY FUNNY. Just in case you hadn't got the message.

Oh, and when she visited Chatterbooks, Jenny Smith made us randomly pick words to get a new name for ourselves. Mine was Silly Bongo Thunderpops.

You can find out more about Jenny Smith here, and read her own lovely comments about the Chatterbooks visit here.

Update: Having read the two sequels, I can very happily say that they both improve upon the already really good first novel. You get to know each of the Abominators much better, and the laughs don't stop! I'd thoroughly recommend them.