Branching Out: Books for Fans of David Walliams

This is a hilarious book about daydreamer, Nick who gets a detention for well, daydreaming along with his friend Eddie, who thinks he saw a spaceship land in the woods. They join Phil, angry Mia and tech-savvy Sanjay in detention.

The PE teacher, Mr Barton wants them to play against talented Lucas and his team in the Community Centre. If that’s not bad enough they have to wear unwashed kit. The names on the back of the T-shirts are: Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe, Morgan and Haaland. When they lose miserably, they are made to run laps around the park but they hear strange noises coming from the woods. When they see a green light they go in and are kidnapped by alien, Gaux and robot, Nauton who mistake them for the names on the back of their T-shirts to play in the Galaxy World Cup on the planet Bigpu!

Back on Earth, friends, families and teachers watch them as they play match after match. This was a gripping read with so many funny parts. Mia is always shouting, Phil is always vomiting and Sanjay can’t stop sneezing. This book would be perfect for football fans and fans of funny books alike. Although they seem like misfits who have nothing in common they actually work well together and learn they have ther own strengths.

This story was partially inspired by footballer Marcus Rashford’s own experiences growing up and is written with children’s author Alex Falase-Koya. Marcus remembers the breakfast clubs he attended growing up, and said “Breakfast Club guaranteed I had the best possible start to my day and welcomed me with open arms. It wasn’t just about food. It was about forming friendships, about togetherness, about escape. It was where some of my greatest memories were made.” This fiction book pays homage to the role breakfast club played in his upbringing.

In the story, Marcus attends Breakfast Club along with his football-loving friends. Since he lost his lucky football over the fence, his magic touch is gone and he’s lost his enthusiasm a bit. Everybody knows that he won’t get the football back because the other side of the fence is a no-go zone with a derelict, abandoned building. Before he knows it, Marcus ends up swept up on an adventure with the Breakfast Club Investigators involving a mysterious note, a strange creature and a deep dive into what really lurks beyond the fence.

This fun, pacey adventure full of twists and turns is a big hit with Key Stage 2.

Sebastian and his two best friends, Lina and Étienne become stranded on a desert island and it’s all Sebastian’s fault. The three friends won a school competition to take part in an environmental summer camp where they would learn how to protect the planet. Sebastian became particularly competitive with the other children at the camp, and before they knew it, there they were, shipwrecked and alone on another island. Headstrong Lina soon takes charge, determined that they won’t make the same mistakes as the children in ‘The Lord of the Flies’ and Sebastian sets out to gain his military dad’s approval.

Told from Sebastian’s point of view, the chapter headings are a series of ‘survival tips’ based on things he’s learnt along the way. The story is full of humour, wit and several animal companions, but it also carries a lovely message about friendship and working together to overcome difficulties.

This is a great adventure story by popular children’s author Jenny Pearson, suitable for Year 4 and up. It will also be loved by fans of humorous stories.

This is the second in the series of Livi’s adventures, but it works well as a standalone read, as there is plenty of backstory to explain it all.

It is a wonderfully bonkers book, taking Roman and Greek mythology and using it as the basis for madcap escapades, mixed up with modern situations too. I particularly liked the extensive glossary and use of historical terms throughout the text. My favourite part was the collection of objects, and I don’t think it would spoil the plot to mention that Alan Titchmarsh’s secateurs are amongst them. Any book that can make adults as well as children laugh and learn, has got to be a good one.

Livi is such an entertaining narrator, and her bluntness is her strength. The illustrations and cover by Flavia Sorrentino are a delight, hinting at the story at the start of each chapter as well as bringing some of the characters to life. This is definitely the sort of book to make a great read-aloud and companion text for any Romans topic.

Beloved Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce‘s returns with the usual humour and storytelling mastery in the movie-making-themed The Blockbusters!.

The story begins when brothers Rafa and Cillian must move in with their Uncle Miles as their family faces housing difficulties and Rafa’s class go to visit a movie set. A comedy mix-up leads to Rafa resembling a huge film celebrity at all kinds of star-studded chaos ensues!

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who has experience of the film industry, combines cinematic insight with deep empathy for modern children’s lived experiences, resulting in a warm, funny and insightful story recommended for Year 5 and 6.

12 year old Hedley likes life to be safe and predictable, especially as his own changed completely after the car crash a year ago.

As part of his therapy, he attends Bridlebank Activities Centre every weekend, where the thuggish Aiden takes delight in tormenting him. Things get worse when their support worker, Nic, insists that they both start a weekend job at Farmer Bert’s Petting Zoo. However, Aiden steals the farmer’s prize alpaca, Duke, hiding it at the activity centre, and convinces Hedley to embark on a quest to take Duke to a release site so that he can live free in the wild.

As you’d expect, disasters ensue, including wrecking a petrol station store, accidentally assisting in a robbery, causing a football match to be abandoned, and – of course – all their exploits going viral. With the latter, it will be an interesting lesson for readers to see how much the true course of events in the story differs from the online reports.

There are themes of family, friendship, grief, courage and stepping outside your comfort zone. This is writing at its best, with genuine laugh-out-loud moments (especially in the police station and the football stadium) and a well-crafted and emotional ending – a totally unforeseen one for me! I would highly recommend this for any fans of Jenny Pearson or anyone who enjoys fast-paced comedic adventures.

What a treat this is for our younger but curious readers, and especially those who like funny books.

From the former doctor and bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt comes a new side-splitting series about the world’s youngest doctor, Dexter Proctor. He is different. He is ten years old. He has friends but he is so bright and gifted. And by the age of ten, he is working as a paediatrician at Lilydale General Hospital!

But Dexter has a mortal enemy (Dr Drake) and a major problem – all the teachers are struck down with dreadful diarrhoea! Dexter must step up to the challenge and try to save the teachers and the school.

This hilarious new series about the world’s youngest doctor from the record-breaking Adam Kay and Henry Paker will keep our children informed, engaged and laughing out loud.

This is a wonderfully funny story from the queen of humour Pamela Butchart tells of some friends trying lots of different ways to make money. They have some ups and downs along the way as they take their idea of selling cheap pizza and try to make it into a business that makes lots of money.

Ben’s family are having some money troubles at the moment because his Dad has lost his job, and he wants to help his family find the money to pay the rent. He has read a self-help book about becoming a billionaire and thinks he can do it as well. He uses the tips from the self-help book as his guide for the best things to do to succeed in business. The story ends with a lovely example of how friends can come together to help each other.

This is a great example of a diary that primary children in Key Stage 2 would engage with. The illustrations help to break up the text and make it more exciting for the reader.

We love this laugh-out-loud series with a tongue-in-cheek humour and plenty of funny asides, but also a poignant side about bullying, overcoming adversity and dealing with big emotions.

Charlie magically changes into animals when he is worried or stressed (not necessarily chickens, though). Charlie’s worries pile up, with a brother in hospital, parents bickering and a school bully to deal with. Riproaring and hilarious antics follow suit as Charlie navigates temporarily changing into a spider, a rhino, a pigeon, snake and more.

Children with a wacky sense of humour will find this story really funny, and it provides plenty of opportunity to think and discuss the deeper topics too.

The Mr Gum books have become absolute classics for children who love funny books and appeal to those with a wacky style of humour.

You’re A Bad Man, Mr.Gum is a stonkingly funny read from Andy Stanton, full of pure silliness and with a track record of delighting children aged 7-10. Mr Gum is mean, untidy, grumpy and grizzly, but he is very good at keeping his garden neat. When an excitable giant dog called Jake makes a mess in Mr Gum’s garden, Mr Gum’s mean streak comes out in hilarious and fairly ineffective ways.

Children enjoy the randomness of the dialogue, the unpredictable plot, the funny character names and the author’s witty asides. Illustrations capture the madcap tone of the book and add to the fun.