Fluff Mess up! by Matt Stanton

Matt Stanton hardly needs an introduction to Australian children, parents and teachers. He is a best-selling Australian author and illustrator who has sold over a million books in Australia. The Funny Kid series (aimed at Middle Years students) has fans around the world. The Fluff series (aimed at Primary years students) is his latest. 

Fluff: Mess up! is second in the series following Fluff:Bullies Beware! What a hoot this book is! All the good-natured comedy, the sweet (slightly naughty) characters and their shenanigans bring joy and laughter to kids. This sort of graphic novel turns reluctant readers into readers. The behaviours of the characters show that Matt Stanton is an acute observer of human nature. The reader must be able to read irony too because sometimes the illustrations deliberately do not match the words. This deliberate mismatch is where humour lies for the astute reader. An example is p.68 where the illustration depicts Stacey, the teenage sister with hair all over her face and eyes glued to her mobile phone. Gilbert, our hilarious main character, misreading as usual, says, 'Stacey...she's...also very busy being a teenager, and being a teenager appears quite stressful'. 

Themes: Finish what you start, Fix mistakes, Don't avoid tasks.

Wendy Jeffrey