Fungus the Bogeyman
by Raymond Briggs
Interest age: 6 to 11
Reading age: 7+
Published by Puffin, 1977
About this book
This sophisticated cartoon-strip picture book for older children follows one day in the life of Fungus, a morose bogeyman whose sole reason for being is scaring humans.
Yet it turns out that even bogeymen aren't immune from a dose of existential angst, as Fungus spends his day wondering what his life is really all for.
Briggs depicts the slimy, smelly details of life in Bogeydom in stunning detail. It's an upside-down world with more than a trace of Punk perversity left over from its first publication in the 1970s. Fungus, with his bright purple Mohican haircut, breaks all the rules.
But for those of us who live Up Top, the density of world-building and wit of the wordplay make the book as clever and fun today as it ever was.
Briggs will have you chortling away to Hamlet and Dostoyevsky allusions while your kids giggle at the poo jokes. Fungus the Bogeyman is Briggs at his subversive and entertaining finest.
About the author
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