A Dahl/Snicket Vibe, But Funnier

I wasn't sure about this when I first started it. Wilf is a mighty worrier, about pretty much everything, and it felt like that was a premise that could get old fast. Wilf's best pal is a wood louse, which told me that extreme-quirky was going to be the order of the day. Wilf's voice was engagingly manic, but he seemed just clueless enough to become grating after a while. Well, excuuuuuse me for being so quick to judge. The book may have taken a few pages to settle down and to capture me, but after that it just got better and better and funnier and funnier.

We get that deadpan edgy serious/silly exaggeration that makes Dahl so fascinating. We get chatty narration and over-the-top humor-gloom in the Snicket style. But, the funniest bits are in the dialogue, the manic exaggerated action, and the dryly understated throwaway lines and observations. The result is a story that whipsaws between vaudeville silliness and tongue-in-cheek deadpan, sometimes in the same sentence. This all requires great craft and restraint, and tremendous control over pacing, or it just becomes a muddle, and our author always has everything under command.

I can see why young readers enjoy these books. There is a story that spans the whole series arc - Wilf has to stop evil Alan's villainous plans. There is an arc for each book - here, (in Book Three of the five book series), Wilf has to stop Alan from raising an animal army in Africa. But, in addition to each book's story arc there are also running unrelated jokes, (Wilf's Mum points out in their every interaction that Wilf has his shoes on the wrong feet), and there are mini-bits that run from a paragraph or two to a page or two. (For example, dung beetles kidnap Wilf's stinky little sister to be their new queen and Wilf has to negotiate her release.) The upshot is that there is always something happening, the book is fast paced, events occur in manageable bits, the jokes are non-stop, and the book has both a breathless screwball feeling and yet a reassuringly solid storyline to keep the young reader on track. All that is quite a feat.

It helps that Wilf is an appealing character. He thinks he's a worrier, but while that might be the case, he always rises to the occasion and shows grit and resourcefulness. He can be very perceptive and insightful, but he can also be a bit clueless and confused. In either mode he is calm, dependable and good humored. This is a character a reader can take to heart, in a silly, poopy sort of way.

The drawings deserve special mention. They always clearly illustrate what's happening in the story. They are crisp and clear and capture the characters and the action with uncanny, and appealing, accuracy. Apart from being entertaining in their own right, these drawings offer another aid to a young new reader.

So, this turned out to be funnier, smarter, cheerier, sillier, and cleverer (?) than I expected, and I'd count it a happy find for a newer reader.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Like many children, Wilf worries about things. Lucky for him he has a pamphlet with all kinds of strategies to help him deal with the many things that keep him awake at night. This was a cute book and the silliness of the situations would appeal to a young reader. The characters go to Africa and are able to talk to the animals through a crazy invention. I especially liked Kevin the dog who rerouted every conversation to include giving him a dog treat.

Will definitely appeal to the lower elementary crowd with its jokes and unexpected plot twists. Just the right length / text density for this age group. Liked the fact that strategies for coping with fears / worries was woven into the book.