Customer Reviews

The Naughty Nork (Moongobble and Me)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the fourth in the series, and like another reviewer, I would recommend that you read the other books before this one. But its not all that confusing though its definitely not a stand alone like some books in his other series are. I read most of the stuff my eight year old does, and this is a satisfying evening for him. Its perfect to read through in one sitting in a few hours for him. I loved the way the story unfolds, and the cute characters each with their own quirks, and so did my son.

I read this book myself and then had my 6 year old daughter read it. She is learning how to read longer books and I felt this book would be a challange. It is over 100 pages and it has minimal artwork, all black and white.

The story revolves around Oggledy Nork. Oggledy is a large monster with a curse on him. He is befriended by the book's hero, Edward and Moongobble, a wizard of sorts.

The book is geared toward 9 to 12 year olds, but after reading it, I thought it was entertaining enough for my six year old Kyleigh (almost 7) to give it a try. She picked it up and could not put it down. She read through it and afterward gave me her insight.

From her perspective, it is a fantasy story filed with magic and spells. During their travels to remove the curse from Oggledy, this group encounters others who have spells on them. She enjoyed the ending which has a little twist and helps young readers understand a little about life.

I felt the story is simple enough for a 6 year old to enjoy, whole the book is written with enough detail to keep an 11 or 12 year old interested as well.

Based on this "fun story" Kyleigh wants to read more from the "Moongobble and Me" series, and I agree. This is a great book to help a 6 or 7 year old ready to take the leap to longer story books.

The Naughty Nork, also known as "Oggly Nork", is under a spell. And who isn't? So says the Old Woman of the Dark Forest, later in the book. Oggly Nork, in his present shape, is really more of a huge, ugly simpleton, who is nice, yet clumsy. And who can blame him? He doesn't mean to be naughty. He tries to obey, tries to fit in, but he is just too darn big! Plus he drools a lot when he is happy.

Young Edward, the hero of this story (and the series?); as apprentice to the kindly, but bumbling, portly magician Moongobble; is about to embark on an adventure to help Oggly find a home and also release from the spell which changed him from a knight into a silly monster. Edward takes leave of his kindly parents and the village of Pigbone with the Nork and the magician, accompanied by the little dragon, Fireball, and the sometimes cranky toad, Urk. They meet other interesting characters along the way. They must pass through the Dark Forest, Bogfester Swamp, and seek toad spit from the giant toad in the Temple of Toadliness. Really. (would I lie to you?)

But first, off to the city of Flitwick. Edward has never been out of his little village and is both curious and nervous about being in the big city. The Urk assures Edward that the city is not really so great: mostly lots of people, and lots of horse poop everywhere. This he experiences first hand. Well, first foot, actually. But he'll get to wade through a stinky swamp, run through a collapsing tunnel while being chased by a toad's flickering tongue, and be barfed on by a magic-eating slime creature by the name of "Dangly Boo" before the adventure is over.

Coville's latest addition to the "Moongobble" series is a mystical, magical, fantastical romp where, once again, all's well that ends well. Young children, who are fond of fantasy and this series will enjoy "The Naughty Nork". Fantasy is the order of the day. This story is pleasant. The art, which consists of soft, homey pencil drawings is also pleasant and "nice". But this tale is not outstanding literature destined to become a classic.

Good children's literature holds the attention and imagination of adults, too. Colville has now written over 90 (?!) books now, including the "My Teacher" series of the early 90's ("My Teacher is an Alien", etc.), and the Ron Albright series of the mid-nineties ("I left my Sneakers in Dimension X). My kids liked these books, and so did I. Several of the latest books about dragons and unicorns got high ratings, and so deserve a look by those who like this sort of story. I must add that I am VERY impressed by Colville's Shakespeare stories. He does a fine job re-telling Shakespeare's plays, and the artwork is fantastic.

Have a happy day, and don't come under any spells!

K. Draper, for "The Vine".

This book is about a little boy who goes on a quest to break a curse to turn his monster friend Oggledy Nork (Naughty Nork) back into a human.

Amazon lists the book for 9 to 12 year olds. That may be the reading level of the books. My son is 7 years old and reads at about the third grade level. He'd be able to read this book; but I read the first chapter to him because I wanted to read it as well. After the first chapter, he decided he did not want to continue. My 4 year old was not interested at all.

The pages are beautifully bordered, the pencil illustrations are nicely done. Visually, it is an attractive book and those little elements add to the setting and aid the reader in fully immersing into the story.

I found the silly nonsensical words detracted from the story. Made up names and places are best done so the reader doesn't notice they're made up. One reviewer mentioned Dr. Suess, which was an excellent example. Harry Potter is another example. In those worlds, the new words are easily associated with their meanings despite the fact that they are made up. In this book, the words popped out at me in every sentence, and it was hard not to focus just on those words. This would actually have been a better book without the use of silly, made up words.

The writing style was easy to read and flowed well but I think the storyline needed help and some things were a little choppy and didn't make sense.

For instance, the little boy tries to convince his parents to let him keep the Naughty Nork at home for the night and they don't because his mom is pregnant and Dad didn't want to upset her. That was the end of the first chapter. It was a big ending. The boy was in shock over the news. I expected the next chapter to be about the surprise big news.

The next thing you know, he's on his quest. News about the becoming a big brother was completely forgotten from the next turn of the page. Why did he need permission for Naughty Nork to stay at home in the first place when they could have just gone straight on their mission? Maybe so the reader could find out the mom was pregnant and the boy could go on his quest and grow up and then learn he doesn't have to worry because the baby is just one more person to love. Exactly how his quest taught him that, I'm still unclear. He didn't give it a moment's thought in the entire adventure until his mom felt the need to reassure him.

There are many other things that made me do a double take. I think I'm missing something, but when I re-read it, I find out it's just not there.

The Naughty Nork is the story of a young boy who goes on a quest to change his monster friend Naughty Nork back into a human boy. It's a reasonably entertaining story of the sort and the writing is satisfactory. However, I found myself unable to get into the story. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was about it. It simply didn't grab my interest. The Naughty Nork also features a lot of illustrations, which you'll either like or not. Truthfully, I didn't care much for them. This isn't a commentary on the talent of the artist -- the style simply wasn't one that appealed to me. As a result, I wasn't eager to pick it up.

This book is absolutely delightful and just what I expected from Bruce Coville. My daughters loved his books when they were in grade school and now I'm sure my granddaughters will also fall in love with them. I would say that this story is good for grade 2 and up. Easy to read and interesting storyline will keep your child entertained from beginning to end. A must buy book and it would certainly be great in the Easter Basket.

This book is perfect for reading aloud. The sentences are short, and the words sound great, but aren't hard to pronounce (Moongobble, Oggledy Nork etc), which gives it a great age range. My four-year-old liked the story (but was a little bored by it), and my ten-year-old really enjoyed it -- even reading it aloud to him.

For kids (or adults) who like fantasy magic, this is great. Moongobble is a less-than-accomplished magician, but they have fun along the way.

This is the 4th "Moongobble" book, but the first that we've read, and I didn't feel at all as if I was missing any background information.

The Naughty Nork is 5th in a series of children's books featuring the hapless wizard Moongobble and his assistant Edward. In this particular book, the duo (along with a couple of friends) set out to break an ancient curse - and find out that the only way to break it is to first break another one! While this book could very easily be read as a stand-alone, it would be nice from an adult standpoint to have read the others in order first. There were a few references to things that had (I presume) happened in the other stories that would have been nice to know. However, I'm not sure most kids of the age this book is targeted for would really pick up on them or even care if they did.

The book is nicely paced for its audience - there are no plodding scenes where the travelers take days to get to their destination. Rather, the next chapter will mention something like "It took two days to reach Bogfester Swamp", and then the adventurers arrive and the fun begins.

The story itself is simple, but with enough fun elements (a talking toad, a wizard who isn't very good and who frequently messes up his spells by turning things into cheese) that readers should find themselves not only drawn into the story, but wanting to stay to witness the conclusion. It would be a good book to help a reluctant reader see how much fun reading can be, while still keeping the attention of those children who already enjoy reading.

My son, who is 7 ½ and in second grade, has decided that he quite enjoys the story. He has *voluntarily* chosen to read this book for the last few days during his reading time. I have heard him giggling to himself, and some of the story elements have made their way into stories he likes to write. I would say that this book (and its accompanying titles) would be good for 1st - 4th grades, depending of course upon the reader. It would also be a fun series for parents to read aloud to their children - the chapters are fairly short, and it's entertaining enough that everyone could enjoy it together. Overall, it's light fun for children, and anything that can help encourage younger readers to pick up a book can only be a good thing.

This is a cute little book. The illustrations are well done. It is a fairy tale. A group of friends try to take care of one of their own, who is a huge troll like creature, with very human emotions. It is a story of friendship, loyality, and compassion. I read it aloud to a group of 7-8 year old boys and they enjoyed the plot and the way it was written. they were able to understand the general themes of acceptance of those who are different then we are. They wanted to know if there were anymore stories about these characters. Which is always a good thing. A sweet, funny book.

The Naughty Nork is really a clumsy, oafish monster named Oogly Nork who use to be a man but was living under a curse. Edward, the story's main character is a boy and apprentice to Moongobble the magician, sets out with a group of friends to get the curse removed from Oogly Nork, knowing that somewhere in that oafish creature is a regular man who wants out of the monster-being he has become. First stop on their quest? Flitwick City!

This book is clearly made to to engage young readers who are in the "beginning chapter book" stage of reading. The text itself is simplistic enough for those readers (for the most part- there are some more advanced words- but not too many), yet attempts to engage both older and younger readers with its fantasy plot lines of monsters, magic and adventures. There are pencil type illustrations on many of the pages and an engaging illustrated border around each page. The illustrations are indeed lovely. While this book might not as be engaging as more adult type children's literature it does have it's place. It draws in young beginning readers with enticing subjects and gives them a sense of accomplishment when they are done reading. The story line is a bit cliche but often time that works well. The book is not gender specific and I believe both boys and girls would equally be engaged in this story.

My only real complaint with this book is that the Nook's speech is very simplistic and cavemaneque. It might confuse some early readers who are use to reading grammatically correct sentence structure or may be hard to understand for non-native speakers.

While this book is obviously part of a series and there are a couple references to other books in the series, it is quite easily a stand alone novel. This book is a solid three-star book.