Little Badman and the Invasion of the Killer Aunties
by Humza Arshad and Henry White, illustrated by Aleksei Bitskoff
Interest age: 9 to 11
Reading age: 9+
Published by Puffin Books, 2019
About this book
Humza (aka Little Badman) great ambition is to be a super cool rapper and he devotes most of his time and energy on pursuing this goal.
Something weird is happening at school though: teachers are disappearing and being replaced by food-obsessed Aunties intent on fattening everyone up! When his music teacher vanishes, putting a halt to Humza’s rapper dreams, he’s determined to figure out what’s going on – and then things start to get really crazy...
But Humza’s famous for telling not-entirely-true stories: how’s he going to get anyone to believe him? Recruiting his best friend Umer, his elderly uncle ‘Grandpa’ and Wendy, the smartest girl in school, it seems Humza’s particular musical talent is the only thing that will save his school, town – and possibly the whole world – from potential alien invasion. As long as he doesn’t let stage fright defeat him first…
Fast-paced and funny, readers are immediately swept into Humza’s world and really feel for him and his various troubles, like his super-strict dad and adults not listening properly. Full of action and humour, but perhaps best of all is how Humza grows and changes through the story, and gets his dad to too.
About the authors
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