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Oliver Fibbs 1: The Attack of the Alien Brain
Hi! I'm Oliver Tibbs (some people call me 'Oliver Fibbs') and everyone in my family is super-brilliant at something - chess, ballet, brain surgery and architecture - but I'm not brilliant at anything. Show and Tell (or as I call it: Pain and Torture Time) is my worst nightmare . . . I haven't got a black belt at karate or made a mega-powerful electro-magnet. All I'm good at is reading comics and eating pizza. But I'm fed up with being Dull and Boring, so I've been telling the class about my adventures as a Defender of Planet Earth - battling against the evil Alien Brain Drain who wants to take over the world! Everyone loved it except Miss Wilkins, who gave me a detention for telling fibs. Now my parents think I'm Going Bad. I keep telling them - THEY'RE NOT FIBS, THEY'RE STORIES!
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 3, 2015
I really did love this book, although I think that the reading experience may have been better in papaerback rather than Kindle. There are a lot of graphics, and I had to keep expanding them to allow me to view them with ease.
The story itself is great. A lot of imagination has gone into the writing. It is told from the point of view of Oliver Tibbs, aka Oliver Fibbs.
The poor boy is surrounded by BRILLIANT people. His whole family is BRILLIANT. His Mum is a brain surgeon. His Dad is an architect. His little brother is a chess champion. His twin sisters are BRILLIANT at ballet dancing. Almost all of his classmates at school are BRILLIANT at something or other. Oliver is judged by his peers to be DAB: Dull And Boring.
You'll understand why I put the word BRILLIANT in CAPS and BOLD when you read the book.
The only person who is anything like Oliver is his best friend, Peaches Mazimba.
Oliver is BRILLIANT at fibbing and he has a BRILLIANT imagination.
I have read books along the same lines as this, but nothing exactly like this.
You can read it in one sitting, and I guarantee that it will make you laugh and will not challenge too many of those neurons inside your head. Read it and have fun!
The story itself is great. A lot of imagination has gone into the writing. It is told from the point of view of Oliver Tibbs, aka Oliver Fibbs.
The poor boy is surrounded by BRILLIANT people. His whole family is BRILLIANT. His Mum is a brain surgeon. His Dad is an architect. His little brother is a chess champion. His twin sisters are BRILLIANT at ballet dancing. Almost all of his classmates at school are BRILLIANT at something or other. Oliver is judged by his peers to be DAB: Dull And Boring.
You'll understand why I put the word BRILLIANT in CAPS and BOLD when you read the book.
The only person who is anything like Oliver is his best friend, Peaches Mazimba.
Oliver is BRILLIANT at fibbing and he has a BRILLIANT imagination.
I have read books along the same lines as this, but nothing exactly like this.
You can read it in one sitting, and I guarantee that it will make you laugh and will not challenge too many of those neurons inside your head. Read it and have fun!
September 22, 2013
Agree totally with Lance..
I shall read to grandsons (age 8,9,10) and to great nephews (age 2 years and minus two months)
I shall read to grandsons (age 8,9,10) and to great nephews (age 2 years and minus two months)
August 15, 2024
Oliver Fibbs and the Attack of the Alien Brain is a really accessible and smooth read, with some fantastic ideas.
Growing up I was definitely a lot like Oliver in that I loved to tell fibs, lies and unbelievable stories. Much like the novel's protagonist, this propensity to tell tall tales got me into trouble but again, much like Oliver, I feel like that troublesome habit also hinted at my future love of storytelling and my budding imagination as well as a desire to be special.
That's very much where this novel begins, Oliver feels very un-special surrounded by spectacular classmates, brothers, sisters, parents (and one braggadocios bully!). But when his imagination bursts free in a show and tell session in school he begins to get noticed by his classmates and the grown-ups around him.
I really loved the inventiveness of Oliver's stories about the Alien Brain and their evil human sidekick and I would definitely read a standalone novel focusing on the adventures of Oliver's alter ego superhero DAB-Man. I think the overall message of the novel is really admirable - through Oliver's journey, younger readers especially would/should take away a belief that all children are special and have unique gifts that, whilst not always recognised as traditional "talents" like being chess champions, ballet dancers or brain surgeons, are nevertheless worthwhile.
Despite this, there are a handful of points which I couldn't quite let go of as I finished the book. Oliver is so relatable in many ways for younger readers with so much of his character and experiences at school reflecting the lives of most children. However, when you dig a little bit deeper and consider that his family have a substantial enough wealth to have things like a live-in Italian nanny and parents with the money/resources to fund whatever interests their children might have, I began to question the depth of some of the novel's messages.
For all of Oliver's worries about not feeling special compared to those around him and being labelled as DAB (Dull and Boring), when you compare him to someone like his best friend, a young girl called Peaches, who appears to come from a much less privileged background (at show and tell, while Oliver bemoans re-telling stories of watching his chess champion brother compete or being with his brain-surgeon mum at hospital, Peaches, however, can only show-off her homemade mask/hat made of yoghurt pots).
Moreover, with my analytical hat even more firmly on, I do wonder what message young female readers might take away from the book. For all of the humour, the inventive daydream stories and school day drama (all of which are really well written), female characters are repeatedly presented as being limited to traditional gender portrayals and noticeably shuffled into the background. Male characters are martial artists, chess prodigies, science savants and engineers - as well as Oliver, the supposed dullest and most boring of the characters, being such a captivating storyteller that he can enchant his entire class to such an extent that even his teacher becomes powerless to stop him. On the other hand, female characters are presented as primary school teachers, ballet dancers and spelling bee champions. Oliver's mum, a surgeon, is a rare exception to this rule but it nevertheless feels like there could be more balance and modernity in what the author shows is possible for his cast and their real-life counterparts. Again, Peaches, epitomises a problem in this novel for me. At the novel's climax when the best friends' playground re-design project is in jeopardy, Peaches contributes to save the day - not by being the chief imaginer of the project (Oliver takes that role), or by challenging the chief antagonist (a male bully who it is suggested stole their proposal), but by being sensible enough to have (quite un-realistically) made a carbon copy of all of their notes and ideas in a second notebook. That the novel ends leaving us with the lasting image of Peaches being initiated into Oliver's superhero gang under the pseudonym of "Captain Common Sense" with the power "of being sensible" sadly really underlines my concerns.
Overall though I really enjoyed the novel and think there is a lot to like, and I will definitely keep my eye out on my next charity shop book hunt for the sequel!
Growing up I was definitely a lot like Oliver in that I loved to tell fibs, lies and unbelievable stories. Much like the novel's protagonist, this propensity to tell tall tales got me into trouble but again, much like Oliver, I feel like that troublesome habit also hinted at my future love of storytelling and my budding imagination as well as a desire to be special.
That's very much where this novel begins, Oliver feels very un-special surrounded by spectacular classmates, brothers, sisters, parents (and one braggadocios bully!). But when his imagination bursts free in a show and tell session in school he begins to get noticed by his classmates and the grown-ups around him.
I really loved the inventiveness of Oliver's stories about the Alien Brain and their evil human sidekick and I would definitely read a standalone novel focusing on the adventures of Oliver's alter ego superhero DAB-Man. I think the overall message of the novel is really admirable - through Oliver's journey, younger readers especially would/should take away a belief that all children are special and have unique gifts that, whilst not always recognised as traditional "talents" like being chess champions, ballet dancers or brain surgeons, are nevertheless worthwhile.
Despite this, there are a handful of points which I couldn't quite let go of as I finished the book. Oliver is so relatable in many ways for younger readers with so much of his character and experiences at school reflecting the lives of most children. However, when you dig a little bit deeper and consider that his family have a substantial enough wealth to have things like a live-in Italian nanny and parents with the money/resources to fund whatever interests their children might have, I began to question the depth of some of the novel's messages.
For all of Oliver's worries about not feeling special compared to those around him and being labelled as DAB (Dull and Boring), when you compare him to someone like his best friend, a young girl called Peaches, who appears to come from a much less privileged background (at show and tell, while Oliver bemoans re-telling stories of watching his chess champion brother compete or being with his brain-surgeon mum at hospital, Peaches, however, can only show-off her homemade mask/hat made of yoghurt pots).
Moreover, with my analytical hat even more firmly on, I do wonder what message young female readers might take away from the book. For all of the humour, the inventive daydream stories and school day drama (all of which are really well written), female characters are repeatedly presented as being limited to traditional gender portrayals and noticeably shuffled into the background. Male characters are martial artists, chess prodigies, science savants and engineers - as well as Oliver, the supposed dullest and most boring of the characters, being such a captivating storyteller that he can enchant his entire class to such an extent that even his teacher becomes powerless to stop him. On the other hand, female characters are presented as primary school teachers, ballet dancers and spelling bee champions. Oliver's mum, a surgeon, is a rare exception to this rule but it nevertheless feels like there could be more balance and modernity in what the author shows is possible for his cast and their real-life counterparts. Again, Peaches, epitomises a problem in this novel for me. At the novel's climax when the best friends' playground re-design project is in jeopardy, Peaches contributes to save the day - not by being the chief imaginer of the project (Oliver takes that role), or by challenging the chief antagonist (a male bully who it is suggested stole their proposal), but by being sensible enough to have (quite un-realistically) made a carbon copy of all of their notes and ideas in a second notebook. That the novel ends leaving us with the lasting image of Peaches being initiated into Oliver's superhero gang under the pseudonym of "Captain Common Sense" with the power "of being sensible" sadly really underlines my concerns.
Overall though I really enjoyed the novel and think there is a lot to like, and I will definitely keep my eye out on my next charity shop book hunt for the sequel!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 26, 2017
I read this when i was young but when i read it again it just gives me this sense of joy when reading it because its so fun.
July 28, 2013
One of the funniest books i've ever read!!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews