Penguin

9780143788836

January 8, 2019

Puffin

$!6.99

R. A. Spratt has been entertaining readers hugely for some time now with Nanny Piggins and Friday Barnes and now with her new series The Peski Kids which is every bit as funny and quirky as her others. In this second instalment the Peskis are doing their very best to keep a low profile in their new town – the strange and parochial Currawong – but low profile + Peskis doesn’t seem to mesh.

Out in the bush doing punitive ‘cleaning up’ April is washed away in an overflowing creek but manages to crawl to the bank where she is confronted with a large black bear. Of course no one believes her story and are all convinced she is delusional. Likewise nobody believes that Finn didn’t intend to break the weird Cat Lady’s foot. And then there’s the additional mystery of neighbour Loretta buying Mr Peski new underwear. Joe at least is mostly staying under the radar – well except for that incident of rejecting Officer Odinsson’s overpowering young sister. Then there’s the town Daffodil Festival, Constable Pike and odd Dr Vaas, the loopy Mayor and the ever-present threat of the Kolektiv to deal with so really the Peski kids are up against it at all turns.

In all it makes for a thoroughly hilarious romp in which the kids begin to sort out the intricacies of Currawong and it’s rather unique population.

Spratt takes her readers on a non-stop ride with every story she writes and this series will be no exception. It’s just starting to build momentum in my library after the general despair over the demise of the Friday Barnes series but it’s definitely catching on!

Highly recommended for readers from around eight years upwards.