Opie Jones Talks to Animals by Nat Luurtsema
Title: Opie Jones Talks to Animals
Author: Nat Luurtsema
Illustrator: Fay Austin
Publisher: Egmont
Published: February 4th, 2021
Pages: 288
Target Age Group: 8 – 12 years old
Rating: 4*
My Review:
If you’re looking for a fun, engaging and adventurous children’s book, this could be just what you’re looking for! It is a hilarious story about an ‘ordinary’ ten year old girl who develops the power to read the minds of animals! She’s recruited to join an elite secret group of super heroes – The Resistance but everyone else can read human minds and can’t think when reading animal ones could possibly be useful . . . Needless to say, she’s the one who can save them all – and the rest of the world – in this suspense-filled, fun, fantasy adventure.
This is a great story to encourage children to escape into a story. The text is an appropriate size, the black and white illustrations add to the story and the end of chapter comments for animals are brilliant! It is a story filled with a whole range of fun characters – both human and animal. An engaging read, this is a story I recommend parents and teachers take a look at for anyone they’d like to encourage to read. It is a story to giggle your way through, whether you are a child or an adult. I was very happy to discover it is the start of a new series and suspect anyone who reads this will look forward to future books with eager anticipation – I know I will!
Thank you for my copy of this book which I have voluntarily read and honestly reviewed after laughing my way through it!
Synopsis:
Dr Dolittle meets Kid Normal in a hilarious middle grade superhero series from comedian Nat Luurtsema. Perfect for fans of David Baddiel, Charlie Changes into a Chicken, My Brother is a Superhero and Lightning Girl
10-year-old Opie Jones is Very Ordinary. In fact nothing remarkable has ever happened to her, if you don’t count the cat that gives her funny looks from next door (which she doesn’t). So she is naturally very surprised when she is recruited to join The Resistance – a team of superheroes who can read minds, and have a dastardly brainwashing villain to defeat.
HOWEVER… it turns out Opie can’t read human minds, she can read ANIMAL ones. The other members of the Resistance are very disappointed. And a whole world of animal chat and demands is opening up to her. She’s still a superhero, just one on her hands and knees in the mud, chatting to a pedantic worm.
But when the Resistance find themselves captured, it might just be that listening to all the creatures great and small is what makes Opie Jones the right person to save the world.
