Book Review: Moone Boy - The Blunder Years

It feels odd launching into the new year without either a round up post for last year, or a new year resolution type of post but I've really enjoyed having some time away from the computer over Christmas and so I'm not planning to do either of those posts.

Spending less time online meant that we had a more relaxed Christmas, more time with the kids, more sleep and catching up on some reading. 

One of the books we've been meaning to read is Moone Boy: The Blunder Years which PanMacmillan kindly sent to the boys to read. Written by Chris O'Dowd (of The IT crowd fame) and screenwriter Nick V Murphy, it certainly promised to be a funny read. 

We used Christmas as an opportunity to read together each evening. I was actually really glad we did read Moone Boy together because a) I got to enjoy the book and laugh along with the kids and b) I was able to alter any of the language that was slightly too 'colourful' for the boys to hear. 

Martin Moone, the main character in the book (well the main non-imaginary but still a fictional character) is 11 years old, and my boys are aged 8 and 10. But because they were out of school being home schooled for 3 years, their ears have been rather sheltered from any bad language at all. Moone boy has a few words that they weren't used to hearing, but certainly nothing that most tweens and teens would be surprised by. Things like 'flipping' 'boobs' 'bumhole' and 'oh balls'. So nothing too horrendous but just enough that I tweaked some of the language as I read with them because they weren't used to it. 

So this book is about a kid called Martin (Martin Moone - hence the name of the book 'Moone boy') who's becoming outnumbered at home with his three sisters picking on him. Time to even things up a little... So in steps an imaginary friend or 'IF' for short. 

After a rather bizarre tree encounter (I won't spoil that bit for you), Martin eventually gets his 'IF' in the shape of Loopy Lou, a crazy, annoying clown-like character. But when he decides Loopy Lou isn't quite the right IF for him, that's when the fun really begins. 

This book is certainly one of the most bizarre books I have read and the authors have very cleverly combined the imaginary with the real. Well not the actual real as it is a fictional book after all but real as in the real stuff of sisters and school and schools bullies and bicycles. 

We found ourselves putting on all sorts of silly voices as we read the book (I'm especially proud of my Loopy Lou voice) and we also came across a whole host of new words too from words like 'realsie' (the real person who has the imaginary friend) to lots of Irish words we'd never heard of, to lots of totally odd and crazy explanations to words we had heard of, for example, "Margaret Thatcher - the eldest and wartiest of the witches from Roald Dahl's wonderful book".  This was another reason I was glad to have read the book with the kids, to explain which of those explanations were true and which were the silly made-up ones. 

Now if this review sounds totally bizarre and crazy, then you'll need to read the book yourself and it'll all make sense. Well as much sense as someone having an imaginary friend and living a part-imaginary, part-real life can make. But it is a great read and will have you laughing and putting on silly voices too. And you'll probably have a tough time figuring out your favourite character because as great as Martin and Loopy Lou are, Martin's other IF is truly brilliant and I couldn't help but totally love Bruce too. 

We were sent this book from PanMacmillan and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Thank you PanMacmillan!

Moone Boy: The Blunder Years, written by Chris O'Dowd, is published by PanMacmillan and is available from their website.