Boyface and the Quantum Chromatic Disruption Machine

by James Campbell

Boyface Antelope has been waiting his whole life to turn ten and be allowed to enter his parents' stripemongering shop so he can take stripes off animals and put them on something different. Like tartan onto badgers, or removing the stripes of zebras to make ponies. On the morning of his tenth birthday he finds his parents ill, and they ask him not just to go in the shop but to look after it on his own! Will he be able to keep the stripemongery running smoothly?

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 5, 2014

About the author

James Campbell is a writer, storyteller and creator of Comedy 4 Kids. He travels around schools and theatres nurturing a love of storytelling and inspiring the children's own creativity too. James can be regularly seen at the Edinburgh Festival, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and on children's TV programmes such as Blue Peter and The Big Book Babble. He lives in Suffolk with his family, some chickens and a really silly dog.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains the insult: " you scandalous pooflip" which Oscar and I laughed about for about 5min.

These books are great. Very funny, well written, nicely eccentric. Very highly recommended for 6-7 year olds.

[Rebekah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book feels like it's missing a sense of purpose and arc. I'm not sure what it's trying to do or why. And there were some moments in it that I thought were a bit horrid.
I didn't feel the characters were likeable and there wasn't much in the way of wholesome character development. The plot seemed a bit pointless and didn't really go anywhere. I personally didn't find it enjoyable or funny. The illustrations are sometimes good, but the characters are really odd looking.
I wouldn't recommend this.

CW:
-Lang - 'shoddy', 'where the flumming bling', 'you scandalous pooflip', 'what the flipping poo', 'gosh'
-a rather unkind description of one character and her appearance: 'Mrs Antelope was a large lady with wrists as big as a tennis player's thigh. She had a belly the size and shape of a hot air balloon and when she laughed her whole body would ripple and shudder and rumble and roar like an engine.'
-animal mistreatment, experimentation and abuse, including imploding a tiger (there is a special button on the machine that can turn it back into a tiger, as if that makes imploding a tiger okay. It's still animal cruelty even if you can put him back together again.)
-the family are basically just thieves and swindlers, with this dodgy business stealing the stripes etc of animals