Operation Bunny by Sally Gardner

Many of you will be familiar with the name Sally Gardner, if only for all the recent media coverage for her recent book from Hot Key Books, Maggot Moon, and the huge discussions about dyslexia that surrounded its publication. You may also know her from the hugely successful I, Coriander. But did you know she also has a nice line in middle grade fiction too?

You might not, as she's been a bit quiet on that front recently, but with Operation Bunny she has hopped (excuse the pun) back onto the wagon to produce a totally mad, funny, and exciting little gem.

 Our heroine, Emily Vole, hits the headlines when she is discovered in a hat box at Standsted Airport and very nearly blown up as a suspect package. That doesn't deter the spoilt and deliciously grotesque Daisy Dashwood, who with her indulgent husband, Ronald, adopts Emily and starts to raise her as her own child. There wouldn't have been much of a story if things had stayed there, but, of course, Daisy soon discovers she's pregnant and when her triplets arrive, Emily is relegated to the role of skivvy and general dogsbody.

At this point there are nods towards Harry Potter (Emily's bed is an ironing board in the laundry room) and Lemony Snicket (ludicrously gothic characters who are as charming as they are ghastly) which might raise a wry eyebrow in the well-read but never degenerate into plagiarism. Then Emily meets the strange old lady from next door and her even stranger cat, and things start to get seriously silly. There's a bird-clawed witch with a propensity for turning people into bunnies of assorted hues, an irritable fairy and the cat, who's called Fidget, talks and walks on his hind legs. And there's a quest!

This is wonderful stuff. It moves fast, has a cast of gloriously awful villains, fairies, witches and bright pink bunnies. And it's illustrated with spiky black and white drawings by David Roberts that conjure up the characters in all their barmy glory. What more could you want?

This is the first in a series which will have Emily, Fidget and Buster (the irritable fairy) solving further cases for Wings & Co, the fairy detective agency, bringing, I am sure, lots more fantastic villains and equally fantastical stories for us to enjoy. If you have a 7+ year old who likes fun, then this would be a great little gift, and who know, might even get the odd reluctant reader interested too.

The lovely people at Orion Books provided this review copy. If you would like to get your own please click through from here and Amazon will kindly send a small contribution towards maintaining this blog.