Don't be horrid Henry! (Horrid Henry - Francesca Simon)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Horrid Henry - Francesca Simon
Date:	14/12/08 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant stories

Disadvantages: NONE

The dastardly deeds of Horrid Henry are currently the subject 17 books written for children aged between 6 and 11. The author of these books is Francesca Simon and each one is focused around Horrid Henry and his equally horrid friends. As you can probably guess from the title of the collection Henry is a horrid child whereas his brother Peter is perfect. Henry's mum and dad sincerely wish that Henry was like Peter but we don't because then there wouldn't be any fantastic antics from Simon to right her books about.

Horrid Henry is book number 1 in the collection and was published in 1993. The book contains four stories entitled, Horrid Henry's Perfect Day, Horrid Henry's Dance Class, Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret and Horrid Henry's Holiday.

Each story is roughly 20 pages in length and so is more than manageable for children. The stories are also interspersed with fantastic illustrations by Tony Ross, which help to engage children even further.

OK so what are the stories about? Well in short they're about all the horrible antics that Henry gets up to during his day-to-day life. To give you a bit more insight however I have written a short synopsis for each of the stories within the book.

**Horrid Henry's Perfect Day**
Henry was a horrid child but his younger brother was always perfect and everyday Henry's mum would say, "Why can't you be perfect like Peter?" One day however Henry decides that he is going to be just as perfect for the day but Peter is not impressed and becomes riled by Henry's perfect behaviour.

**Horrid Henry's Dance Class**
Henry doesn't want to go to dance class one bit. He wants to do karate or judo but mum and dad have put their feet down and forced Henry to participate in dance class. To make matters worse his dance school is putting on a show and Henry is forced to play a part in it.

**Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret **
Moody Margaret didn't really like Henry and Henry didn't really like Moody Margaret but if neither of them had anyone else to play with then either one will hop over the fence into the garden of the other. The real problems however start here when they can't agree on what to play. Can they agree for once?

**Horrid Henry's Holiday**
Henry's idea of a superb holiday is lounging in front of the TV all day, eating crisps and drinking fizzy pop. His parents however have far different ideas and this year have decided to go to France. Henry is amazed they're going somewhere good but the fun dies out when he realises that they're staying in tents, with no TV!!

Now I know these synopsis' are short but you must appreciate that so are the stories and therefore writing too much would simply give away the entire story and therefore make buying the book useless. My favourite story out of the four is definitely Horrid Henry's Perfect Day because the way Henry behaves and Peter's response to this behaviour is rather comical and makes brilliant reading.

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: The book where it all began