The Astounding Broccoli Boy

This is a book that children and uncritical adult readers will enjoy. However, for the more discerning reader, this book does not reach the standards that the author set in his books Framed and Cosmic.

My son (aged 10) LOVES this book - currently his favourite book in the world. (Before that it was Framed, also by Frank Cottrell Boyce). He is definitely my son's favourite author. I've been so impressed - since he started reading books by Frank Cottrell Boyce, my son has turned into a bookwork and started racing through the books to get to the end, even though previously he was a reluctant reader who would only read a few pages at a time of a book and then say he'd done enough. They are slow burners in that it can take a little while to get into the plot, but the writing is good enough that even 10-year-old boys will stick with it, and apparently the plots are really exciting.Would hugely recommend! In fact am planning to read it myself now, on my son's recommendation!

I love Frank Cottrell Boyce and couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of The Astounding Broccoli Boy. I would have devoured it in a day except that my children love his books as much as I do, and they insisted we read it together as our nightly bed time story. We thought it was excellent. The character of Rory is particularly charming, and we loved his allusions to all the superheroes he and his dad read about, and how he and Tommy Lee try to figure out their greenness in a way the grown ups never would. There are some really funny bits and some really gripping bits, and the bits in between are pretty good too.

“Every story has a hero. All you have to do is make sure it’s you.” From these first two sentences I was hooked. Apart from the amazing covers (Ha! can you spot the green boy among hundreds of black and white penguins?) the next feature of the book is its size. At 388 pages it may appear to be a challenging read but far from it. The clever layout of some pages, with lines of short snappy sentences, helps children to gallop through the pages. Children will love this as it’s quirky and reminiscent of Philip Ridley, another whacky children’s author.Central to the story is Rory Rooney, a small boy bullied by his nemesis Tommy-Lee (Grim) Komissky. Yet Rory is seen as an oddity by his classmates who sympathise with Grim when he goes into anaphylactic shock after eating one of Rory’s Chocolate Frisbees. You see he is allergic to nuts. When the Killer Kitten disease starts to spread across the country, threatening Christmas, Rory is not comforted when he turns green and put into an isolation unit with Grim, who has also turned green. But the story continues with the two boys awarding themselves superhero status. They enter Rory’s imaginary superhero comic book version of his life as they set out on a mission to fight baddies and save London. There are some hilarious episodes with the raiding of The Bank creating a “laugh out loud” moment and the introduction of Peter the penguin and Koko, a politically interested girl who has also turned green. The Prime Minister should be very afraid of Koko.As a primary school teacher I have a pretty good idea as to books that will work and those that will fall flat. I returned to school after the holidays raving about this one. Although teachers would easily be able to find extracts to read aloud, overall it is best read by the children themselves. They will enjoy the sweet illustrations by Steven Lenton, which add a comic touch to the text without being intrusive and they’ll love the layout and chapter headings making the whole experience a joy. Brilliant work.

I bought this for my 8 year old Grandson and he loved it as he loves broccoli . He even dressed up as Broccoli Boy for World book day

Currently enjoying Mr Cottrell Boyce's books.