Role reversal (Horrid Henry And The Secret Club - Francesca Simon)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Horrid Henry And The Secret Club - Francesca Simon
Date:	08/12/08 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to read stories

Disadvantages: NONE

Horrid Henry, his brother Perfect Peter and his rabble of friends that includes Moody Margaret and Rude Ralph are currently the subject of 17 books written for children aged between 6 and 11. The author of these books is Francesca Simon and each book is based around the antics of Horrid Henry. As his name suggests Henry is a horrid child and so are many of his friends whereas his brother Peter is perfect. This leads Henry's mum and dad to wish that Henry would just stop being horrid and be more like his brother. We don't wish that however, as if Henry was perfect then there'd be no story.

Horrid Henry and the Secret Club is book number 2 and was published in 1994. The book contains four stories entitled, Horrid Henry's Injection, Horrid Henry and the Secret Club, Perfect Peter's Horrid Day and Horrid Henry's Birthday Party.

Each story is roughly 20 pages in length and so is more than manageable for children. The stories are also interspersed with some fabulous illustrations by Tony Ross, which grab and hold children's attention as well as helping them to engage further with the story being told.

Now for each of the four stories in this book I have written a short synopsis so as to give you a little insight into the antics of Henry that Simon has written about. Please note that these synopses are short but that is simply because so are the stories and therefore writing too much would give the entire story away.

**Horrid Henry's Injection**
Henry hates injections but that is exactly what time it is - Injection time. As Henry sits in the waiting room of Dr Dettol's surgery he watches and listen as his friends enter the surgery, scream and then leave. When Margaret enters however there is no scream before she leaves the surgery and Henry is determined to be just as brave as her when his turn arrives. Fat chance of that happening as when his name is called Henry immediately starts kicking and screaming and scheming about how to get out of it.

**Horrid Henry and the Secret Club **
Both Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret have secret clubs. They both of 'loyal' member or more correctly a 'loyal' member and both have passwords that dictate who can and can't enter the clubhouse. More importantly both of them want to enter the others secret club. How to do it, is the question that most prominently features.

**Perfect Peter's Horrid Day**
Perfect Peter is fed up of not being noticed by mum and dad. They are always too busy yelling at Henry to notice how good he is being. That's when Peter decides that tomorrow he is going to be just as horrid as Henry. Unfortunately for him things don't exactly go as planned when the bad deeds he does are misinterpreted. Will Peter ever be told not to be horrid.

**Horrid Henry's Birthday Party**
That time of the year has come around again - Henry's birthday. Neither mum nor dad are eagerly anticipating the prospect of Henry's birthday party but things look up when they book it elsewhere. Unfortunately the place cancels at the last minute due to Henry's reputation and mum and dad are forced to hold the party at home. Can the day really get any worse?

My favourite story out of the four has to be Horrid Henry's Injection because to be perfectly honest I wish I ahd the guts to do what Henry does when faced with the prospect of an injection, as I hate them with a passion too.

I would highly recommend these stories to all children within the target age range. They are simple yet entertaining reads and are sure to capture the imaginations of all that read them.

Summary: A brilliant book for children within the target age-range