AWFUL AUNTIE by DAVID WALLIAMS.SOURCE: A Christmas present from Niece #2 (I hope she wasn't trying to tell me something).
BACK COVER BLURB: Stella Saxby is the sole heir to Saxby Hall. But awful Aunt Alberta and her giant owl will stop at nothing to get it from her. Luckily Stella has a secret - and slightly spooky - weapon up her sleeve.
FIRST SENTENCE {Prologue}: Do you have an awful auntie?
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 69}: When Stella would bring her aunt her nightly glass of sherry, Alberta and Wagner would be tucked up together in matching striped pyjamas reading the day's newspapers.
MY THOUGHTS: Whilst with all of the wit and trademarks of every other David Walliams book to date - the hilarious 'bullet point' asides, the use of different fonts in varying sizes and thickness to high-light, the tremendous pen and ink illustrations by Tony Ross (the best yet in my opinion) - Awful Auntie is however quite different from the authors previous offerings.
Though hardly a work of historical fiction unlike his other books this is set in the past (not that this is glaringly obvious) and is a bit of a ghost story in as much as one of the characters is a deceased chimney sweep. Another, and one of my favourites, a Great Bavarian Mountain Owl.
A fun read (my favourite of the authors to date) with, as is typical of his writing, a moral at its heart but largely just poor escapism. Quirky and with great characters (I absolutely adored Gibbon, the elderly butler, who, amongst other mishaps, served hot, buttered carpet slippers in place of toasted crumpets), the more I read Walliams' books (this is my fourth) the more he comes into his own as a writer and not just a celeb who happens to write books.
9 comments:
This looks like an enjoyable and funny read, Tracy. I haven't heard of David Walliams before.
This is new to me, as well, and sounds like quite a good book.
(and it sounds like your niece knows her auntie well when it comes to gift-giving)
Does sound fun and the wittiness well done
That's cute your niece got you a book! And that's awesome you enjoyed it and feel the author is getting better with time.
I buy books for children in my family and I find your reviews and perspective very helpful. I will likely be picking this one up.
I laughed at your comment in parenthesis.
Very sweet that your niece bought it for you :-)
Oh yes it sounds nice and sweet! It's always a pleasure to discover a fun book.
This sounds like an enjoyable book, best shared with favorite aunties.
The title makes it sound fun so I'm glad the book matches. Hm... I might have to check this one out.
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