Game on: Glitched

I know that you should never judge a book by its cover, but I'm sure everyone does and I instantly thought that this is a book that I am not going to enjoy having to read and review. However, I then saw it was published by EK books and thought that maybe it was not going to be so bad after all as we have many of their amazing books in our library.

Apparently, the first book in the series is about being suffocated by snot, eaten alive by maggots and inhaled by a vacuum cleaner. None of this particularly appeals to me, but those who enjoy this type of humour are likely to relish reading this sequel which includes roasting and eating a dead mouse, washing clothes in urine and eating bat poo, amongst other gruesome things.

Not surprisingly (for EK), the reader also learns a little along the way, such as what life was like in the Stone Age, Roman Times, Middle Ages and when dinosaurs were on Earth. There's some great vocabulary used that may be new for some readers, such as gullible, sadistically, conundrum, humiliated and frenziedly. Some words appear in capitals or bold text, so the reader knows to emphasise these when reading.

In addition to single-page illustrations, there are also about 15 double-page black-and-white drawings too. I personally found these interrupted the flow of the story, as they often appeared part-way through a sentence, but some readers will love having these to look at.

In short - this was not a book for me, but I can see it definitely having a place in the library and I think it would appeal to reluctant readers who enjoy humour, short chapters and captivating illustrations.