I mean, we would have probably made this a book of the week regardless. Both of us love Asterix and Obelix, I grew up with the plucky Gaul and his super-strong sidekick but with the new team of Ferri and Conrad, the new books are finding a hugely appreciative audience with C, who loves them just as much (perhaps even more) than I did.
So what's in store for our gallant Gaulish heroes with this 38th book? A subject very close to home at the moment. What happens when you're living a fairly peaceful life (aside from the odd spot of Roman bashing) in your village - but soon have that peace and quiet disrupted by a new arrival?
The daughter of the famous Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix is being hunted down by the Romans. She is Adrenalin (no really, that's her name) and like her biological namesake she's a heck of a force to be reckoned with. Having done her own bit to disrupt the mighty Roman empire, she is now on the run - and has found her way to Asterix and Obelix's home village, as her father the mighty Vercingetorex believe she'll be perfectly safe alongside a couple of potion-swilling badasses.
It seems like a great plan - until Adrenalin starts to behave a lot like a certain person who contributes to this blog. Tantrums, disobedience, a lack of communication - and all this aeons before mobile phones and tablets and instagram feeds were even invented!
We both loved this, possibly because we were both coming at it from different viewpoints. For me, I felt a lot like Asterix and Obelix, suddenly confronted by this strange unknowable force to be reckoned with that even their potions and warrior prowess couldn't help them deal with (welcome to fatherhood chaps!), for C it was siding with Adrenalin, as the story beautifully segues with the usual rollicking romp you expect from an Asterix adventure, but shows that the kids can teach those old dogs more than a few new tricks.
Sum this book up in a sentence: Ferri and Conrad have once again taken Goscinny and Uderzo's amazing Gallic world and given it a vital generation-spanning kick in the pants and we could not love it more if we tried. Thoroughly recommended.
"Asterix and the Chieftan's Daughter" by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad is out now, published by Orion Children's Books (kindly supplied for review)