Reading age: 8-12
The description of the book is as follows: Miles Murphy is known for one thing and one thing only - pranking. He’s the best prankster his school has ever seen. So, when he’s forced to move to boring Yawnee Valley (known for one thing and one thing only: cows), he assumes he’ll be the best prankster at his new school too. There’s one problem. The school already has a prankster—and he’s good. Really good.
I am a HUGE fan of the Spy Kids series so was thrilled to find another middle grade series by Mac Barnett. Since I'm not really into pranks, I was less than thrilled with a storyline about two pranksters who presumably spend the book trying to out-prank each other. It seemed a little mundane to be honest. But I bought the audio book and put it on anyway.
Holy Yawnee Valley cow! This book is brilliant, and I loved every sentence of it. The characters, storyline, the writing... everything is superb. I even liked the pranks. Mind you, these are epic and elaborate pranks involving days of careful planning, set up and execution (rest assured, these couldn’t be replicated by any naughty readers looking for pranking inspiration). The nice part is that the pranks don’t hurt anyone… they only aim to distress Principal Barkin. The over-the-top, dim-witted and short-tempered school principal’s life is a wonderful archetype - full of ego/self-grandeur and self-delusion (my favourite character, hands down).
The Terrible Two is deceptively simple, in the sense that it’s an easy read with short quick chapters. But there is a mix of overt and subtle humour, with some deeper themes around identity and friendship.
This just reinforces that Mac Barnett is hands-down my favourite kid’s author. His stories are packed with zingers and laugh out loud moments. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
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