Bored: Frog's mystery twin by Matt Stanton

This is the second in Matt Stanton's Bored series, where each installment is told by one of the children living on the same street, Turtle Place. This one is told by Frog; he's creative, thick-skinned and just doing his best to fit in as a Year 6 at a new school. Short on other ideas to make everyone like him he decides to do a giant tortoise ballet to bring some energy back to a bored class of kids. Trouble is, it kind of backfires. Luisa starts picking on him, Evie seems to think he is crazy and Milo is grumpy about something. Maybe telling everyone he has a twin brother would make everything better? It doesn't, but it makes for a great story! 

Frog is a well-rounded and likable character from the beginning and is easily admired as he used to be bullied but is determined not to let this change his personality. Stanton is masterful at drip-feeding new details about each of the kids so we get to know them more and more throughout the book and across the series. Each character is incredibly relatable, especially when we are able to look at the world through their perspective. Each one of them have something going on in their lives under the surface and contexts that have made and are making them who they are. Luisa is clearly bullying Frog and she is a refreshing departure from stereotypical bully figure in many children's books. She is not one-dimensional and we find out later on that she is dealing with a stressful situation in her own personal life. This is a wonderful reminder to children that everyone is capable of acting out/emotional outbursts/making mistakes but that we are able to learn from them and move on. It reinforces that our circumstances and our environment affect our actions and gives strategies for understanding others and their behaviour. Fans of Stanton's Funny Kid series will be obvious readers, but this really is a series that should be put into the hands of all tweens. 

*This is fine to read as a standalone, without having read the first in the series. 

Themes: Humorous stories, Friendship, Empathy.

Nicole Nelson