Sophy Henn breezes through the transition from picture book megastar to early chapter book doyen with aplomb, absolutely nailing it with her first EYMG book "Bad Nana"
If you're not lured in by the glorious electric-pink cover, you'll definitely love the story of young Jeanie. She has a fairly ordinary family. A mum, a dad, the world's most annoying little brother (he even SMELLS annoying - that's how annoying he is!), a gaggle of awesome friends and of course her grandparents.
On one side they're all rather prim and proper, with exquisite loo-roll holders shaped like elegant ladies, a surfeit of doilies and antimacassars, and of course a rather nasal view of noisy young children.
On the other side there is Bad Nana.
Bad Nana instantly reminded both C and I of our dear departed Nan / Great Nan. She doesn't conform to the usual 'sweet little old lady' stereotypes at all, in fact most people might suspect she's a witch. Bad Nana usually dresses in black with the world's tightest bun (on her head, silly!)
Jeanie's Bad Nana isn't a gangsta granny (that might infringe a few copyrights), she's just got a wicked eye for mischief and loves nothing better than to drag Jeanie into her half-baked schemes. Well, who needs a strong moral compass when you can have a lot of fun being naughty.
Bad Nana should be old enough to know better (so all the stuffy adults say, anyway) but she thinks nothing of behaving badly whenever she can. Life's too short to be stuffy.
We absolutely adored the three mini stories that make up this fabulous book, and we're absolutely delighted to hear that this is just the start of Jeanie and her Nan's adventures (we can't wait for more).
Each story unrolls like a classic comedy of errors - in fact it's the sort of thing that is just BEGGING to be turned into a TV series (pay attention TV rights folk, snap this sucker up before someone else does).
Utterly brill. Bad Nana is absolutely perfect.
"Bad Nana: Older not Wiser (Bad Nana Book 1) " by Sophy Henn is out now, published by HarperCollins Children's Books.