Moone Boy: The Blunder Years

Outnumbered at home by his family of girls and bullied at school, Martin Moone is in need of a friend, fast. An imaginary friend sounds like the perfect solution for some instant moral support but Martin’s imagination isn’t very good so when he hears about the catalogue of ‘IFs’ just waiting to be matched up with their ‘realsies’ he’s raring to go.

Loopy Lou isn’t exactly what he had in mind, he’s over-excitable, won’t stop rhyming and calls Martin Moo-Moo - he has to go back. But clerical errors regarding IFs have to fixed by the appropriate clerk - and when Customer Service Representative 263749 arrives to sort out the paperwork, Martin finally finds the friend his imagination couldn’t.  Loopy Lou is still causing trouble and those bullies won’t quit, can CustServRep263 really help with Martin’s problem?

Genuinely bizarre and ridiculously funny, this is one of the maddest books of the year. The concoction of authors (and non-imaginary) friends Chris and Nick, creators of the Emmy-winning TV programme of the same name, Moone Boy is probably about friendship and family but is far too much fun to be truly sentimental.

Packed with daft-jokes and non-stop banter, Martin’s Moone’s life is a mad hatter’s tea party, with terrible cereal instead of tea. There’s a grown-up edge to the humour that will really connect with boys on the verge of their teenage years - don’t be fooled by the diary style layout. Loud, crazy and unapologetically Irish with brilliant sketches and a stylish production to boot - great craic!