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February 2015

Diary of a Penguin Napper (Sally Harris)

Diary of a Penguin Napper is the first novel from Melbourne-based author, Sally Harris, which I discovered upon wandering into a bookstore in Richmond the other day.  I started chatting with a nice guy who I can only assume was the owner, and he convinced me to buy a copy (evidently he's a good salesman!).  I then proceeded to enjoy reading the book. OK, so I am a lot older than the target audience of 8-12 year olds, but hey, I can appreciate a good junior novel when I read one!

 Basically, Marty and his amusingly-named best friend Turds (yes, Turds) need to raise money fast so Marty can go on camp with the love of his eleven-and-a-half year old life, Jessica.  I won't go into too much detail, but in the end, kidnapping a penguin seems to be the best option to raise the bucks.

Told as a kind of retrospective from Marty's point of view, the story is well paced and has it's amusing, if not slightly predictable scenarios and characterisations.  But eh, do I think a 10 year old will mind? Nope, I think they will laugh.  All in all, if I hadn't been so tired last night I would have read this in one sitting.  A well written, well-paced, easy book for junior readers, with a few good laughs thrown in. Recommended! 

   
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