ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 5th January 2018 - "Bad Dad" by David Walliams and Tony Ross (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week - once again, it's that man Walliams - he seems unstoppable, just like Queenie!
We feel we should explain at this point that "Queenie" is the name of a fantastic car in Walliams' new book "Bad Dad". A Mini, no less, the beloved champion banger-racing mini belonging to the titular father figure in this book.

Gilbert was once a celebrated banger racer, and his son Frank idolised him.

But dangerous lifestyles often come with consequences, and Gilbert's world is turned upside down one fateful evening. Frank (who always sneaks out to watch his Dad race) looks on in horror as Queenie, the celebrated banger racer, coughs and splutters and then explodes - ending Gilbert's champion career and losing him a leg in the process.

It gets worse - when Frank's mum Rita chooses that moment to walk out on Frank and Gilbert, leaving them for Mr Big - the local criminal mastermind (who is neither a mastermind, nor big!)

With the money running out, and poor Dad and Frank left all alone, it's up to Gilbert to try and scrape his life back together in the only way he knows how, doing the only thing he's ever been good at - but this could be a decision that affects both of them adversely as the long arm of the law is never far away and Gilbert's new money-spinning profession as a mysterious getaway driver is sure to come to a sticky end.

Both of us were completely hooked by this, C to the point of it becoming another one of those books that almost ended up making her late for school as she tried to polish off one more chapter before getting ready (do you let your children read while eating breakfast? We seem to have slid into such a pattern of behaviour but I guess it's marginally better than letting them glue their peepers to a phone or tablet over mealtimes).

As we've come to expect from Walliams it's the characters and the darkly comic situations that make Bad Dad stand out. As much as we've seen celebrity authors (in some cases unfairly) copping flak from other writers, Walliams' books are winners for so many reasons. They're easy to get into, they're fantastically entertaining, uproariously silly in just the right way but also tug at the heart strings (there were moments when Frank and Gilbert are having to tighten their belts more and more that I was reminded of what it was like when I was a wee whippersnapper and we barely had two brass farthings to rub together).

We won't give away the ending but you'll be left cheering by the end, trust us.

It's going to be another colossal seller for David, and as ever he's very careful to thank the folk who are involved in producing his books (including, of course, Tony Ross who really makes David's characters come to life with his superb illustrations throughout this book).

C's best bit: Banger racing! I had to explain to her what this sport was about, just to add some background info and I think she now wants to go and watch an event. Pray for us!

Daddy's best bit: Gilbert. A dad we can all relate to, not always making the best decisions in life but definitely always wanting to do right by his kids. Bless 'im!

(Kindly supplied for review)

"Bad Dad" by David Walliams and Tony Ross is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books.