Muddle and Win: The Battle for Sally Jones

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Muddle and Win: The Battle for Sally Jones

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 11 ratings · 7 reviews

Everyone has a Lifetime Deed Counter (LDC). It works like this:

You offer to help with the housework: Lifetime Good Deeds +1

You steal your little brother's sweets: Lifetime Bad Deeds +1

Looks straightforward, huh? But what if your every thought was disputed by opposing forces of good and evil - by an angel wearing ray bans (called Windleberry) and a demon in the form of a wa...more

Hardcover, 256 pages

Published August 30th 2012 by David Fickling Books

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Oct 23, 2012 Tim Roast rated it 4 of 5 stars

Muddle and Win:

Muddle is Muddlespot, an ex-wart, ex-cleaner sent up from the depths of Pandemonium to try and do what so many others have failed to do before: infiltrate Sally Jones mind and make her do a bad deed for the first time in her life. Win is Windleberry, the angel sent down from heaven to try and keep Sally Jones on the straight and narrow. But who will win the Battle of Sally Jones? Well telling you would spoil the ending.

This book is full of ideas. The obvious one is the lifetime go...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Book Angel Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

REVIEW BY SHELLY

“The angel towered over him. In its rock-steady hands it gripped a great bassoon, with the mouth pointed right between Muddlespot's eyes. 'Say your prayers, creep' said the angel, 'Oh I forgot – you people don't, do you?'

What if your every thought was disputed by opposing forces of good and evil – by an angel wearing Ray-bans and a demon called Muddlespot? Sally Jones is Good. And Muddlespot, newly promoted to special agent, is on a mission to make her Bad. If he doesn't, it will...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Nikki-ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: received-for-review

Muddle and Win is a story about the battle between good and bad. This time the battle is for one Sally Jones.

Sally Jones has a Lifetime Deed Counter (LDC) reading of 3,971,567 Lifetime Good Deeds and NIL Lifetime Bad Deeds. Something must be done about it. In comes Muddlespot…

Muddlespot, former wart (yes, you read that correctly, wart!) and cleaner, is a newly promoted special agent from Pandemonium who has been sent on a mission to turn Sally Jones bad or at the very least make her LDC more bal...more Muddle and Win is a story about the battle between good and bad. This time the battle is for one Sally Jones.

Sally Jones has a Lifetime Deed Counter (LDC) reading of 3,971,567 Lifetime Good Deeds and NIL Lifetime Bad Deeds. Something must be done about it. In comes Muddlespot…

Muddlespot, former wart (yes, you read that correctly, wart!) and cleaner, is a newly promoted special agent from Pandemonium who has been sent on a mission to turn Sally Jones bad or at the very least make her LDC more balanced. If he doesn’t succeed then the consequences are VERY BAD for him indeed. He would really rather have stayed in Pandemonium, cleaning up the body parts, just like he’d always done, but when the boss sends you on a mission up on Earth you don’t turn in down.

On the other side of the battle is Windleberry – an angel wearing Ray-bans, a tuxedo and a bow-tie – Heaven’s best agent.

The battle must take place in Sally Jones’ mind…….

Muddle and Win may be about the battle between good and bad… but how often is it that a reader adores one of the baddies? Muddlespot might work for a devil and formerly have been a wart, but I loved his character. He might be afraid but he’s still brave and he’s not scared of asking for help.

The other agents, Ismael and Scattletail, are excellent fun too. They take care of Sally’s sister Billie and, despite being on opposite sides, can often be found playing cards together, with the winner making decisions for Billie.

I absolutely loved reading Muddle and Win. It took me right back to the books I read during my childhood. Back when children’s books were imaginative, clever and fun, and I’d devour a whole book in one go. Talking of devouring… Muffins are involved, you may find yourself craving some freshly baked muffins while reading this one!

Muddle and Win is a must for young readers (and maybe some of us older ones too!). It teaches a few lessons along the way, but is still witty, silly, light-hearted, touching, intriguing and exciting. An excellent read for pre-teens and teens!(less)

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Aug 24, 2012 Carly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review

The best word I could possibly use to describe Muddle & Win is bonkers, but in a good way! I was hurled into this fabulously imagined world that was brilliantly fun, silly, witty and wonderfully written and put together. I immediately fell in love with brave little Muddlespot, who came to be rather strangely out of a hairy, juicy wart (yes, bonkers, I told you)! The storyline is engaging and is perfectly paced, it is one of them one sitting books that I love so much. I really haven't came ac...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: angels, demons, children-mg, stand-alone

Muddlespot has been sent on a mission of great importance: to turn Sally Jones to the dark side. For an overgrown wart that cleans up entrails, his promotion to special agent was a pretty big deal, but despite being taken out of his comfort zone he seemed to muddle his way through somehow. In fact Muddlespot was the most unsuspecting protagonist there is. At least I think he’s the protagonist. Coming from Pandemonium, aka hell, he should be the antagonist. But for someone who lives in Pandemoniu...more Muddlespot has been sent on a mission of great importance: to turn Sally Jones to the dark side. For an overgrown wart that cleans up entrails, his promotion to special agent was a pretty big deal, but despite being taken out of his comfort zone he seemed to muddle his way through somehow. In fact Muddlespot was the most unsuspecting protagonist there is. At least I think he’s the protagonist. Coming from Pandemonium, aka hell, he should be the antagonist. But for someone who lives in Pandemonium, he isn’t really all that bad. In fact I rather liked him. I wish I knew more about him, but I’m not sure that you could know more about someone that has been grown from a wart by his evil master Corozin purely to clean up the left overs of the other special agents that fail.

It took me a while to realise that the 'Win' in the book title actually referred to Windleberry, a tuxedo wearing angel sent down to save Sally. With a Lifetime Deed Counter that absolutely no bad deeds, Sally is very special. And it is up to Windleberry to jump into Sally's head like some James Bond character and protect her from evil thoughts. I loved the way that Sally's organised and almost repressed brain and thoughts change, so that when Windleberry enters her brain, it's full of vandalised statues and graffiti. And I also liked the psychological element of the angels and demons influencing people and I could imagine people in the real world struggling with good and bad thoughts being feed to them from external forces before acting. Hearing little snippets of what was being whispered to Sally's teachers and mum was funny and you could see the point at which they sometimes broke and committed a bad deed.

The story takes a very blasé attitude to gore and violence. In Pandemonium, torture is commonplace, with fleshed peeled from bones and eyes literally rolling across the ground. I can imagine that some young boys would rather enjoy all the gory details and jokes within the text, but personally I’m not sure such a throw-away attitude would be good for every young reader.

The idea of an angel and devil whispering away to the subconscious mind, isn’t a new one. But the way John Dickinson has written Muddle and Win, and included such unusual characters, brings up so many questions and moral dilemmas. What makes someone good or bad? Can being bad be justified? Can you be bad but still be good? Maybe using the terms good and bad is too black and white. Sometimes standing up for yourself can seem like being bad, but for someone like Sally, who has always done everything other people’s way, a bit of selfishness certainly wouldn’t hurt her. Well, maybe. For younger readers, I think the book will be a good prompt to think about their own behaviour. It certainly made me think.

Sally’s ‘naughty’ sister, Billie couldn’t do anything right. As we were introduced to the inner Billie, Scattletail, her resident demon, and Ismael, her guardian angel, I enjoyed seeing why Billie acts the way she does. At first she just seemed like the naughty, selfish one, but as I started thinking about how people and their actions interplay and rebound, I kind of felt sorry for her. She’s always been compared to her sister and struggles to do anything as well. But when you get inside her head, the relationship between inner Billie, Scattletail and Ismael was much more balanced and relaxed and seemed like a lot more fun, especially when they played cards together.

Although I enjoyed the story overall, it seemed to take a long time for Muddlespot and Windleberry to both get inside Sally's mind. In fact the story was half way in, before any of the really interesting 'thought-persuasion' and angel versus demon dilemmas started.

Muddle and Win: The Battle for Sally Jones is a thought provoking book about good, bad and deeds somewhere in the middle.(less)

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Sep 04, 2012 TheBookAddictedGirl rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone! Children, Teenagers, Adults - It's The Kind Of Book Everyone Will Love!

Shelves: arc, in-my-mailbox, for-review, action-adventure, amazing-worlds, comedy, fantasy, favourites-shelf, humour, paranormal, pre-teen, read-2012, ya, ya-child-crossover

4½ Out of 5
You know how you can read a book and even though you weren't really expecting to, you loved every second? When it's one of those books that has that magic, that spark, that just reminds you so much of when you were young and innocent and everything was absolute magic? Muddle and Win was that book for me. I'm not going to say it’ll be that way for everyone or that it's a perfect, flawless read, but it just had a spark I've not seen in kids books for ages. It's funny, witty, quirky, ex...more 4½ Out of 5
You know how you can read a book and even though you weren't really expecting to, you loved every second? When it's one of those books that has that magic, that spark, that just reminds you so much of when you were young and innocent and everything was absolute magic? Muddle and Win was that book for me. I'm not going to say it’ll be that way for everyone or that it's a perfect, flawless read, but it just had a spark I've not seen in kids books for ages. It's funny, witty, quirky, exceptionally written and just so amazing. Kids and parents alike will gobble it up. It's the best kids fiction I've read since Roald Dahl and Lemony Snickett.
"The object of Mission Alpha was..."
"Sally Jones."
Just like any good story, Muddle and Win is about the battle between good and evil. In this battle, just one person could tilt the balance. This person is Sally Jones, who has thousands of Good Deeds and nada Bad ones.
Sally is definitely Good. But she needs to be Bad, Bad, Bad if Hell is going to have a shot.
That's why Muddlespot, a wart-turned-imp-turned-Agent-of-Evil, is sent to turn Sally Bad, to stop her streak of endless good deeds and maybe throw in a few naughty ones.
If he fails? Well, it will be Very, Very Bad for him and the cleaners will have a verrryy tough job getting rid of his body... bits.
His job isn't helped by the presence of one of Heaven's best, Agent Windleberry, an angel in Ray-bans and a tuxedo, who is determined to keep Sally exactly as she is - Good.
Let The Battle For Sally Jones begin...
I've never read anything by Dickinson before (I don't think...) but from the moment I saw this book in all its marvellously odd glory, I knew I just had to read it. And from the very first page, I knew it wouldn't let me down. Deliciously bad and criminally fun, Muddle and Win is a story all children and teens - and their parents too - will just love. It's witty, clever, addictive and so much fun, even while it makes you question what's good and what's bad, and whether being Good is always the right thing... To sum this up, I loved Muddle and Win to pieces! It's just so brilliantly quirky!
I just adored all Dickinson's characters! Muddlespot... Oh, I almost never root for the 'villains', but I couldn't resist Muddlespot! He wasn't really all that evil - in fact, he felt kinda innocent. Well, y'know, for a demon. Needless to say, I never thought I'd love a former wart so much! Windleberry kinda reminded me of a '20s or maybe '70s (I'm not good with 1900s time periods) cop or gangsta person, what with the tux, glasses and what-not. He was your poster-boy angel - except for a tiny blip where he advised his charge to "hack" someone's shins... Long story - funny, but long! Sally Jones was like an angel: helped her mum, covered for her twin Billie, there fore everyone... But I loved her spirit - especially inner-Sally, who was funny and snarky. All the minor-ish characters were brilliant too - I loved Ismael and Scattletail, Billie's angel and demon, who'd come to an agreement and played card games to see who'd get to choose Billie's next action! But my favourite had to be Shades, Sally's amoral cat who loved to beg and steal and be worshiped! He just stole the show for me!
I absolutely adored Dickinson's writing - it was so much fun and so marvellously bonkers. And wonderfully descriptive - I saw everything in my head. It was just the kinda writing you could read forever. It's all child friendly, but there's a little humour just for the adults in there too! The plot was your standard good vs evil with a barmy twist! It did the battle in its own unique, quirky way. I just loved the mad, addictive, funny plot, and it was so the kind you can (and I did) gobble up in a single sitting.
The Hell world, Pandemonium, was just so amazingly described. Even though the general idea of Hell wasn't stunningly unique, the way of getting there really was. I loved that the way into Pandemonium was equal parts funny and scary! As for Heaven, I loved how suits were the official clothes and how weapons were musical instruments and how everyone said "Yay, verily"! Oh, and the descriptions of minds and how they differ based on the person's personality was just brilliant. Kids will just love the worlds thanks to the vivid imagery. Parents will love them because of the quirky and genius nature.
Now, this book was loads of fun to read, but it also made you think about good and bad. About expectations and how it affects people - and all this without making a huge yell of it. Personally, I think Dickinson is a genius in that department!
Muddle and Win was a brilliant, bonkers, funny, quirky book that was so much fun to read and even more additive. I read it in one sitting, gobbling it up and unable to put it down. A story or unlikely heroes, angels vs demons and whether being a little bad can be good, Muddle and Win is just a must read for everyone, be you young or not-so-young, male or female!(less)

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Jul 01, 2012 Laura YA indie princess rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, for-review, from-publisher, middle-grade, books-i-own

Review to come

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Feb 08, 2013 Nevey Berry marked it as to-read

Jan 29, 2013 Nadine marked it as to-read

Feb 01, 2013 Nic Kitchen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nov 15, 2012 Jesse Owen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nov 12, 2012 Amanda marked it as to-read

Sep 21, 2012 Sherrie marked it as to-read

Sep 02, 2012 Adriana marked it as to-read

Aug 08, 2012 Jessica (Booked Up!) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Aug 05, 2012 Carly marked it as to-read

Shelves: sent-for-review

Jul 30, 2012 Raimy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sep 15, 2012 Bella (Cheezyfeet Books) marked it as my-tbr

Jul 02, 2012 Vivienne Serendipity Reviews marked it as to-read

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Sep 13, 2012 Michelle marked it as dnf

Jun 22, 2012 Nancy marked it as to-read

Jun 16, 2012 Sophie marked it as to-read

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About John G.H. Dickinson

John Geoffrey Hyett Dickinson (born June 1962) is an English author of young adult novels, and has also written one adult novel- Lightstep.
Dickinson lives in Painswick, Gloucestershire with his wife, Pippa Thomson, and two children. He is the household cook, an accountant & church treasurer when he's not writing.

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