Customer Reviews

Horrid Henry

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a 10 year old boy.

This book is about a kid called Henry. He causes a lot of trouble. A lot of people hate him.

My favorite part is Chapter 1 because it's hilarious! First they say he's horrible, but the chapter's title says he's "perfect."

I think it's a full-star book.

I recommend it because it has a sill and fantastic story.

I lived in London for many years and certainly "get" British humor but I don't get it on these pages. Nor do I see any consequences whatsoever for Henry's behavior. He ruins a dance recital for everyone by stomping about and acting "horrid" and the consequence is that he suspects he'll get kicked out of dance and get to go to karate class instead (which is what he wanted in the first place). I was so excited to find these books, I bought the first four. I just KNEW my 6 year old, who laughs at everything, would get a kick out of them. He did find some of Henry's antics amusing but he was literally stunned that his behavior wasn't dealt with. We forged ahead and read all of the first book and half of the second before my son finally announced "This guy is a real jerk." I have to agree with him. Horrid Henry's behavior really isn't that different from Dennis the Menace, Bart Simpson, Ramona, etc., but he lacks the heart and the growth to make him an endearing character and the lack of any kind of constructive adult guidance is disappointing.

As authors of books for children, we set out to create books our young readers will enjoy. We hope our books will be "keepers" to be read again and again. Recently I received another email telling me that my action-adventures and mysteries have had this effect on an eleven year-old boy.

In our family, it was the "Mr. Men and Little Miss" books that our children wanted my wife and me to read over and over again, and we did. Even though our children are 30 and 28 now, I highly recommend these books to parents today.

Now I have the opportunity to introduce you to another set of books that I think will be "keepers." I'm talking about the "Horrid Henry" books by Francesca Simon. I would first suggest these as books for boys 5 - 8. Each book contains four short chapters. Girls will enjoy the books just as much as boys.

The series has been successful in England, and is now being published in the US. In addition to "Horrid Henry," the titles include "Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy," "Horrid Henry and the Mega-Mean Time Machine," and "Horrid Henry's Stink Bomb."

Parents might be concerned that Henry will give kids ideas of ways to get into trouble, but there are always consequences for the things that Henry does. Other characters, in addition to Horrid Henry, include his brother, Perfect Peter, Moody Margaret, Spotless Sam, Goody-Goody Gordon, Tidy Ted, and Soar Susan.

The Horrid Henry books deal with real life situations. Young readers may recognize their own parents, teachers, siblings, friends...even themselves, in the characters. But it's the humor that will have kids coming back for more.

My first concern, as an author, is for struggling or reluctant readers, since I grew up hating to read. Horrid Henry may be just the cure for children who think they aren't interested in reading.

Published by Sourcebooks' Jabberwocky

Max Elliot Anderson

Author

Books for Boys

I brought the first 4 Horrid Henry books down to my almost 8 year old grandson over Easter, and I asked to read a chapter or two and tell me how he liked the stories. He's a second grader and had no problem reading the stories and enjoying the plots, and thought them "pretty cool."

I was a little worried that Henry might give him ideas of ways to get into trouble, but instead I was delighted that there were alway consequences to the naughty things that Henry did - always.

The chapter lengths are about right for a boy who doesn't like to sit still very long.

This series could be the successor to the Beverly Cleary "Henry" books I loved as a child.

Ann Zeise

[...]

I don't know which book a lot of these other reviewers have been reading, but Horrid Henry is a collection of four reasons why it's good to be bad.

1. In the first story, Henry decides to try being good, essentially out of curiosity. His (usually) good little brother gets so fed up on Henry's odd behaviour that he starts acting out. The brother (Peter) throws spaghetti at Henry, who dodges; the spaghetti lands on mom. Henry laughs, and is punished. Not punished for being naughty, mind you - punished for being good all day and then laughing when something relatively minor happens to his mother.

Naughty: no.

Consequences: yes.

2. In the second story, Henry is forced to go to dance lessons, which he hates. He'd rather be learning martial arts. He decides to do do his utmost to ruin the big dance recital for everyone involved. He succeeds in doing so, and is no longer forced to go to dance lessons. The story ends with an affirmation of his enrollment in Karate class, and a picture of him destroying a building-block castle.

Naughty: yes.

Consequences: no.

3. In the third story, Henry gets into a competition with his neighbour to see who can make the most disgusting concoction, and then consume it. While doing this, they leave Henry's brother tied up, alone, in the yard; when he comes in to ask after them, the implication is that they force or trick Peter into eating the disgusting concoction. The end.

Naughty: yes. And potentially dangerous (leaving someone tied up, alone, in the back yard.)

Consequences: no.

4. In the fourth story, the family goes camping. Henry whines and complains the whole time. He also tries to knock down tents, and blares loud music late at night to the chagrin of other campers. When Mom, Dad and Peter go for a walk, Henry is tasked with gathering firewood - AND BUILDING THE FIRE HIMSELF. Highly dangerous! For firewood, he pulls out the pegs of the other campers' tents. Not surprisingly, all the tents fall down in the night.

Naughty: yes. HIGHLY dangerous (asking a child to stay alone and build and tend a fire. Utterly ridiculous.)

Consequences: no.

This book in no way shows a connection between acting naughty and any sort of negative consequences. It glorifies such awful behaviour AND seems to suggest that certain potentially LIFE-THREATENINGLY DANGEROUS behaviours are acceptable and normal. If you read this book with your children or students, it is imperative that you have a good discussion about it with them afterwards. I, personally, will not give this to my children, and regret that my supervisors have chosen to develop content for it for our students.

Naughty bad little boys are the joy of the sometimes naughty, often good little readers. There's the vicarious thrill of reading about a kid who's bad, knows it, and still goes through with behavior not always on the up and up. In America, we have our fair share of these fellows. Now "Rotten Ralph" and "Horrible Harry" have a challenger to their bad behavior based throne. From England comes "Horrid Henry", the boy who will gleefully ruin a dance performance, torture his perfect little brother, sabotage a family outing, and generally act in a rather naughty manner unless caught and told to do otherwise. And even then he'll probably still continue. He may be one of the least charming fellows you, the adult, will ever meet. And your children? The first time he throws someone else's jacket in the mud your kids will be his, heart and soul. For those parents who have complained that "Junie B. Jones" is too much of a handful for their kids, steer clear of "Horrid Henry". He's funny, he's nasty, and he's a hard one to duplicate, that's for certain.

In four stories Henry wavers between being merely bad to downright awful. "Horrid Henry's Perfect Day" describes a single 24-hour period when Henry vows to be just as perfect as his annoying little angel-like brother, Perfect Peter. What he fails to predict, however, is how quickly this disturbs and unnerves his entire family. "Horrid Henry's Dance Class" tells the tale of Henry's attempts to stomp to his own beat in dance class, and how it eventually becomes the undoing of his recital. In "Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret" we meet Henry's match in the form of the girl next door who won't budge an inch when it comes to playing backyard games. And finally in "Horrid Henry's Holiday", Henry and Peter are finally on the same side when they take a family camping trip that is not what either of them expected it to be.

I find it very interesting that the first story in the "Horrid Henry" series (and there are other books to follow this one) is all about Henry NOT being horrid for a change. You get three pages of a general gist of Henry's normal behavior, and then for the rest of the tale Henry could rival St. Francis in terms of calm restraint. What's amazing is that in those three pages, Simon has very effectively set up Henry's normal terrible behavior. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that as he decides to be perfect for a day he's melting his brother's crayons on the radiator. The real advantage to making this the first story too is the fact that right from the start you can show how Perfect Peter is really just a two-faced little squirt. If you were Henry, you'd probably feel tempted to lob a pea at him too. Peter is the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the family. It would not be too difficult to picture him in a velvet suit and lace dickey. Ipso facto, Henry (in spite of his horrid nature) is instantaneously and weirdly sympathetic.

"Horrid Henry", as the name implies, is a British creation but its author Francesca Simon is American to her core. What's so interesting about this book is how strategically Ms. Simon has avoided that moment you usually find in children's literature where the "bad" kid reveals a heart of gold. If Henry has such a heart, it is well and truly hidden. No, Simon seems to be channeling folks like Joan Aiken, whose "Arabel and Mortimer" series was the ultimate in naughty ravens. And since illustrator Tony Ross has a style vaguely reminiscent of Quentin Blake's, you're going to hear Roald Dahl invoked around this series as well. That's not a bad thing. Simon certainly has tapped into that kind of madcap, inventive nuttiness. But in spite of her American status and the fact that the series has been translated into Americanese (my first clue was when they called a snack "chips" and not "crisps"), the books feel bloody British. I mean, I think American kids might get the joke about bad kids fighting for the chance to play Captain Hook, but it still feels specific.

The humor is hard to pin down and describe. How do you define a book where the hero's teddy bear is named Mr. Kill? The American edition of this book has a series of quotes and positive reviews of "Horrid Henry", at the start, undoubtedly strategically placed so as to waylay any potential parental complaints. One of these quotes comes from author Emily Turner who writes, "What is brilliant about the books is that Henry never does anything that is subversive. She creates an aura of supreme naughtiness (of which children are in awe) but points out that he operates within a safe and secure world." I don't entirely agree with this statement since I'm not entirely certain that Henry isn't his own distinctive brand of subversive. Maybe it would be better to say that he's not intentionally subversive. But when it comes to dancing to the beat of his own drum during a recital or finding dry wood during a camping trip, Henry manages to get just exactly what he wants without intentionally (but directly) going against the status quo. However, I'd agree with Ms. Turner that the naughtiness you find here is in a "safe and secure world." And it is precisely that situation that will be most alluring to the child readers.

Kids crave naughtiness and many children's authors respect that. They have for years. Heck, even the "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" books operate on the assumption that naughtiness has its place. "Horrid Henry" will definitely appeal to those kids who have graduated from "Captain Underpants" and need a slight step up in reading levels, without going a step down in terms of trouble making. An enjoyable early chapter book and reluctant reader pick.

"What are we going to do about that horrid boy?" sighed Mom.

"How did two people as nice as us have such a horrid boy?" sighed Dad.

And so begins the horrid tales of Henry. As a mother who enjoys reading "The Adventures of Captain Underpants," I jumped at the chance to read this funny children's series. A #1 best-selling chapter book series in the UK, "Horrid Henry" is written by an American author, Francesca Simon, and is illustrated by Tony Ross.

Each Horrid Henry book contains four funny short stories about Henry and his friends and family. Stories in this first book include: "Horrid Henry's Perfect Day," "Horrid Henry's Dance Class," "Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret" (my favorite story in the book) and "Horrid Henry's Holiday."

With people like Moody Margaret, Perfect Peter, Spotless Sam, Goody-Goody Gordon, Soar Susan, Tidy Ted, and Horrid Henry's favorite teddy bear, Mr. Kill, children will identify with these characters and see themselves with new eyes.

The first 4 books in this wonderful series are being released this week in the United States and are expected to be as popular as they are in the UK. Elementary school age children, and their parents, should love these books, and the easy to read print and words make these the perfect first reader chapter books.

I am a 2nd grade teacher. I moved from kinder and was looking for a series to read to my kids. Thank goodness I found Horrid Henry. This naughty little boy not only keeps my kids rolling, but sometimes I am laughing so hard that I have to stop reading! ( As a mom, I can also relate to this little punk!) I am a super fan and am collecting all of the Horrid Henry books. You won't go wrong with this amazing, real life series of books!

Reason for Reading: I thought ds should be able to read this as his reader and I had read good reviews of how funny they were.

First, we must get one thing straight. Henry is a horrid little boy. He is naughty, likes to cause trouble, is contrary on purpose, likes to make his perfect brother miserable and is never happy unless he gets his own way. Each book contains four short stories and in no way whatsoever does Henry ever learn a lesson, have things turn out bad for him or say he's sorry at the end. No, Henry may have things go not quite the way he planned at the beginning but they only turn out better than he had planned and in the end he gets what he wanted or even better. Henry is no role model, nor can we learn a life lesson from him BUT he is absolutely hilarious, laugh out loud funny. My son wants to read more books in the series and even if he didn't, I would read them on my own and I am way out of the 7 to 10 recommended age group!

This is the first book written and so the first story simply introduces us to horrid Henry and his brother perfect Peter. Henry decides to try being perfect for a day to see what it is like and while he finds it irritating at times, he so confuses his parents and annoys his brother that Peter gets into trouble for a change and Henry can't stop laughing and ends up in his room as usual. Next Henry causes a ruckus at dance class; he'd rather go to karate lessons. Practicing to be a raindrop for Henry is more fun when he does his elephant dance and one thing leads to another until he's finally kicked out of dance class. Hopefully karate classes will now fill in the free time on Saturdays. Then Henry gets together with his neighbour Moody Margaret and the two of them end up in the kitchen making a disgusting, gloopy, gummy, greasy mess called Glop, which they've dared each other to eat. Finally, we end with a camping trip, but Henry's idea of a campground and that of his parent's vary from each other considerably. He wants to go where Moody Margaret's family goes: they have electricity, a pool, TVs, a fridge, a shower and more. Mom and Dad want to go back to nature. Let's just say that when Harry is finished with them, Mom and Dad may never want to be left alone with nature again! Hilarious! Ds did a good job of reading the book, too! It was just a tad over his ability but he enjoyed the stories so much he just kept on going!

While lying sick, recovering from a nose surgery - this was the best 96 pages of the day. :)

Funny, entertaining and it just put me in a happy mood.