Brawnulator Powerknees picks other people’s noses, smells like mutated tuna and eats small children. He is the strongest, fastest, most desirable man on the planet – to a troll.
When Rufus and his friends go on a skiing holiday to the Craggle Alps, they have no idea that the Winter Trollympics – the biggest sporting event of the troll calendar – is taking place nearby.
Sporting a wide variety of dangerous athletes, including Brawnulator, the Winter Trollympics is a hazardous place for children to be. But an avalanche blocks the railway line, leaving Rufus and his friends stranded amongst the hungry beasts.
A slippery, icy adventure packed with hideous trolls, winter sports and lots and lots of snotacular calamities.
Rosen is a British bestselling author, who writes fiction for children and adults.
She was born in Cornwall and grew up on Restronguet Creek. She studied Experimental Psychology at St Catherine's College, Oxford, before moving back to the West Country. She now lives on the south coast of Devon with two imaginary cats, fantasising about getting a real one.
In 2011 Rosen was an aspiring author. Writing was a hobby. The following January sales of her books on Kindle took off, and by October she has sold 27,000 copies and her total download count exceeds 220,000. She now has three books in print: Pompomberry House, Seesaw and The Troll Trap, as well as many digital titles.
Rosen writes in a variety of genres with a strong leaning towards comedy. She has also dabbled with psychological fiction and mystery writing.
She loves wild swimming, mountain biking, interesting boots, quiffs, 'sampling' chocolate and cooking tasty treats. She dislikes house spiders, doing laundry and people putting costumes on their cats.
You don't need to read the Smelly Troll books in order. They are self-contained stories. However, starting from the book one (The Troll Trap) will help you understand the characters and answer questions like 'Why is a ten-year-old boy best friends with a troll anyway?'
This is the third in the Smelly Trolls series and I enjoyed the previous two books a lot and have been looking forward to reading this one. I'm pleased to say that it didn't disappoint. As I've mentioned before I'm not a child (by outward appearances at least!), nor do I have children, but it does appeal to my inner child. With the fun characters in the story this would be a fun book to read out to children as well as one older ones can read themselves.
It seems to me that being a troll is a harsh life, you are condemned for eating children, which on the face of it might seem wrong, although some compromise could be reached I think. For example, maybe the naughty ones could be left out for troll consumption, or special farms - free range naturally I'm not a savage.
Protecting us from the troll menace is a young lad called Rufus, he's a troll hunter. When he and his class go for a skiing trip into the mountains he discovers that the Trollymics are taking place. Trolls normally stick to their small family groups, but they come together for their big sporting event. With so many trolls in the same place a hotel full of children make an ideal target for trolls looking for a snack.
The writing is very funny and there's some great opportunity for silly voices. The social interaction between the children is excellent, it doesn't shy away from conflict, but does so in a way that is well handled. In the grand tradition of children's tales it is very silly, full of menace and the camaraderie of young friends. It's a lot of fun to read as a grown up, but would be even better shared with its intended audience.
It also ends with the ideal hook for the next story, so I'm looking forward to another trolltastic read.