Horrid Henry, by Francesca Simon

Horrid Henry, by Francesca Simon is published by Sourcebooks and is Recommended.

Between re-visiting favorites from my childhood and reading books with and looking for books for my young cousin, I have definitely branched away from my normal fare.  When I picked this up I was thinking that at nine years old,  Horrid Henry might be too young for her, but apparently Horrid Henry can be loved and appreciated at any age.  She seemed to really like it.

Horrid Henry can be summed up quite simply.  Henry is horrid; and he takes immense pleasure from it, and not only that, he’s good at it.  It’s totally wrong and fun in an OMG-I-hope-not-to-ever-raise-the-devil’s-spawn kind of way.  But if you are indeed raising Damien Thorn, then this is not the book for you. This will hit too close to home for parents raising little terrors.  It was almost too much for me, but being childless at the moment, I went with it.

There were four stories in this little book and I have to say that the one I loved the most was the very first one where Horrid Henry pulls a switch on his harried parents and brother, Perfect Peter, and behaves like an angel for a day.  It completely throws of the balance of the family and brings Perfect Peter down a notch or two when he spirals down into unfamiliar bad behavior and negativity.  Perfect Peter may have not deserved it, but I laughed at his expense anyway. It reminded me that I should always be looking to see people for who and what they are in the moment instead of already assuming that I know how they are going to behave.

Another of the stories I loved was when Perfect Peter and Horrid Henry spend the day playing with Moody Margaret.  Moody Margaret is just as smart and plotting as Horrid Henry.  She wants to have her own way and she has no problem doing what it takes to achieve those ends.  It’s nice to see that Horrid Henry knows that he has met his match, that is, until they team up against poor Perfect Peter.  In this book HH also goes camping with his family and has to participate in a ballet recital.  Fun stuff!

Read these for yourself or with your kids just for the fun of it. I was thoroughly entertained, my cousin was entertained and I think she made her mother read them as well.  Fun for the entire family.