BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Book Title: Danny Dingle’s Fantastic Finds – The Metal-Mobile (Available here)
Author: Angie Lake
Illustrators: Suruchi Sati and Shanith MM
Publisher: Sweet Cherry Publishing
Publication Date: July 2015
Most Suitable for: KS2
Reviewed By: Caroline Waldron (@askyermother), Teaching Assistant & Librarian
Danny Dingle (aka ‘Experimental Face’) dreams of one day being the sidekick of his hero, Metal Face. For now though, he has to content himself with inventing things for himself, assisted by best friend Percy, his pet frog Superdog (he REALLY wanted a dog) and his dad.
Whilst Dad comes up with crazier and crazier recipes (baked bean jelly anyone?) to create supersonic flatulence (using Danny and Percy as testers of course), Danny collects everything and anything he finds and adds them to his Fantastic Finds collection. This could be anything from paperclips to used chewing gum.
Meanwhile, the new Metal Face movie has just come out and Danny is desperate to see it but his parents will only take him if his science grades improve. First, Danny’s science club is set the task of inventing something which will stop an egg from breaking when thrown off the school roof. This is a task which Danny aces (albeit with some minor cheating). The club are then given a bigger challenge:
The prize – 4 tickets to Metalway Amusement Park.
The challenge – to build their own soapbox racer.
Danny’s dad throws himself into the challenge and they come up with the Metal Mobile. The book ends with an epic soapbox race.
This is a book that would appeal to reluctant readers in KS2, especially Years 3 and 4. It is quite similar in style to the Wimpy Kid books (with lots of pictures and no dense lines of text) and is laid out in an accessible, comic book format. It will also appeal to budding inventors and those children who always seem to have their own pocket full of ‘fantastic finds’.
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You can order Danny Dingle’s Fantastic Finds online or from your local bookshop or library.
Click here to find out more about the other books in the series.
Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a review copy of this book and to Caroline for reviewing it.
