posted on 29 Jan 2018

Just Plain Weird by Kaye Umansky illustrated by Chris Mould

This is a joyously daft book that is guaranteed to leave you with a silly grin on your face. Written by Kaye Umansky, it’s been beautifully illustrated by Chris Mould who has brought the characters to life in a series of black and white drawings that sometimes fill a page and which combine with the storytelling to make the whole reading experience such fun.

Mr and Mrs Primm and their son, Pinchton, live an orderly and buttoned-up way of life on Tidy Street until, one day, the empty house next door is purchased by the Weird family. Then a sort of fizzing anarchy sets in all around the Primms. The Weird family are weird in the very best kind of way – mom is a stunt woman who drives a Harley Davidson motorbike; dad spends his time in the cellar inventing mystery items; and grandma is a tiny woman who seems to have the power to tell the future and fix terrible messes. Oh, yes, and then there is the house plant that has a mind of its own, a ginger the cat who isn’t ginger and ‘something else’ that crashes and bangs somewhere in the depths of the house.

There are three Weird children who live there and are remarkable in their own right -  Ott (Otterley) who has the most eccentric dress sense, Oliver who likes to spend all his time doing homework and, the youngest, Frankly, who is a little parcel of mischievous destruction. Between them they turn Pinchton’s world upside down and inside out.

Anything seems to go in the Weird household and younger readers will be delighted to hear that they seem to live on chips – chips for breakfast, dinner and tea: chips on demand. They’re grandma’s speciality. And the eccentricity is infectious. Pinchton starts to find ways he can spend more time in the Weird household while Mr Primm gets all nostalgic about his youth and the days when he too rode a motorbike. He even pines for his old leather jacket.

Mrs Primm though is more resistant to the splendid chaos and when she finds herself judging the flower show where Otterley Weird has entered the house plant she’s in for a real shock. I’m hoping that the end of this book is a clue that we’re going to see a lot more of the Weirds and Pinchton – and no doubt they are going to make Mrs Primm’s life more eventful than she’s wants.

At the end of the book there’s a little bonus – a Weird or Normal crossword and a separate little quiz to see which of the Weird children you’re most like. All in all it’s a charming package that will certainly delight its target audience. Actually I’m probably half a century too old to be included in that target group and I still found myself chuckling away as I read it.

Terry Potter

January 2018