posted on 23 Sep 2018

Big Trouble for Nellie Choc-Ice by Jeremy Strong, illustrated by Jamie Smith

I had a big smile in my face when this review copy arrived because I had very much enjoyed reading about the first adventure of Nellie Choc - Ice, ‘the greatest penguin explorer the world has ever known’. The plentiful and colourful illustrations throughout by Jamie Smith are an integral part of this very funny little story. Along with the overall pleasing design, size and shape this one published by Barrington Stoke as one of their Little Gems series, is a real visual treat.

This time the intrepid but rather accident prone Nellie is a passenger on Captain Beardy Beard’s submarine which has rescued her from the North Pole where she had travelled to by mistake. She is longing to go back home to her family at the distant South Pole but takes an interest in her new surroundings and spends the long journey asking lots of questions about the submarine like “ How does it breathe?” and what “diesel” was. The spot on answers provided by the ever patient Captain and his crew are exactly right to satisfy curious readers, myself included!

Just as the submarine needs energy to make it work, Nellie consumes vast quantities of mackerel which are stored in the freezer so that she never needs to worry about going hungry.

When they make a re fuelling stop in New York Nellie is feeling a bit bored and musing about the interesting huge buildings as she looks out of the cabin window. She and all but two of the crew have been left on board when she suddenly hears shouting and splashing. Then she is startled by a man with a plastic gun who bursts into the room ‘wearing a paper bag on his head with two eye holes cut into it so he could see’. It seems that he is trying to hijack the submarine and demands that Nellie should take him to Panama. There is plenty of comic misunderstanding as a result of this and he very quickly regrets trying to ask anything of a penguin who seems to be determined to misunderstand his instructions and also expects him to show good manners.

But at heart Nellie is a very helpful penguin who likes to please and so she tries her best to improvise the lack of diesel fuel by using the mackerel from the freezer - not one of her better ideas as I am sure young readers would point out. When this doesn’t work and the man gets much crosser, she tries to distract him as she asks him for more specific directions to find Panama. Could it be anywhere near the big statue of the lady holding an ice cream? As he points far out to sea she takes a chance and stabs him in the bottom with her sharp beak. This will delight children, especially as it has the desired effect of pushing him overboard and eventually he ( still wearing the paper bag)  is captured by the police. It seems that the highjacker is none other than Mr Big, ‘the most dangerous gangster in America’ so the newspapers and TV news are full of praise for her heroism.

What she really wants is to go back home, but now there is another big problem because the fuel tank is full of half frozen mackerel. How will the crew sort that out and how long will it take? Will Nellie make any more mistakes and will they result in still more adventures? Will she ever get back to her home in the South Pole?

Well that’s another eventful story to look forward to.

 

Karen Argent

September 2018