‘I can’t find my socks!’
It was the middle of the night and all through the castle not a creature was stirring, not even a rascal. Nothing, that was, except Nerlin, who was sitting bolt upright in the darkness in a confused panic.
‘I can’t find my socks and I’ve gone blind,’ he cried.
Mordonna, who had been fast asleep beside him, sat up. ‘Sweetheart,’ she said, turning on the light, ‘you haven’t gone blind. It’s the middle of the night.’
The Flood family are back. In this adventure, the family are worried that King Nerlin is going a bit doolally. All sorts of usual remedies have failed, so it’s time for drastic measures. He will have to visit the old crones, high in the hills. Old crones live far from people for many reasons, not all of them to do with their personal hygiene. But they know things, and lead Nerlin even higher in pursuit of his vanishing brain function. As in all the Flood adventures, things end well, with just enough loose ends to fuel further instalments. Footnotes explain, add to, and clarify the text. Black and white illustrations are scattered throughout, illuminating this unique family and their world.
Bewitched is jam-packed with the puns, jokes and popular culture references that fans will be familiar with from previous Floods adventures. They may appear unusual to others, but they are a cohesive family unit, beset by some well-known family challenges. It’s just that their solutions are not quite so common. As with any large multi-generational family the complications are many, and the complexity mind-boggling. As always, the Floods stories are a whole lot of nonsense. Bewitched takes the reader to places they could never have imagined, and generally brings them back to completely different ones. Chuckling, guffawing, and sniggering are mandatory. Recommended for mid-primary readers.
The Floods 12: Bewitched, Colin Thompson Random House 2013 ISBN: 9781742755304
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
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