I was introduced to Horrid Henry a couple of years ago, when my daughter was in Reception (age 5). She came home from school talking about this horrid boy, Henry. After ascertaining that this was a fictional character, rather than an obnoxious friend, I forgot about him. Until Year 1. In Year 1, all the children in my daughter's class were talking about Horrid Henry. They were fighting over the Horrid Henry books in the school library and discussing the plots in the books they had read. And then there was the TV series… Suddenly, Horrid Henry was a big part of my daughter's life and, therefore, mine too.
So, who is Horrid Henry? Well, as the name suggests, he is a horrid little boy; the kind of boy who would put you off having children forever. However, although he is mischievous, rude and naughty, he is not really unkind. He has a very selfish streak (as most 9 year olds do) that means he only thinks of himself and not others. Nor does he consider the consequences of his actions (again not atypical for a nine year old). The thing that makes him different from most children this age (and therefore makes these stories interesting and fun) is that he is actually very clever and his schemes are often ingenious - if we were to see him as an adult I think he would be a criminal mastermind!
I think that Horrid Henry books are aimed at the 5-8 year range, but my 4 year old loves them and I don't think that the upper age range is necessarily correct. My daughter could read them herself at the age of 6, although I should say at this point, that my daughter has a very high reading level and most 6 year olds would struggle with them. They are written in an uncomplicated way with lots of illustrations throughout to break up the writing. Words written entirely in capitals are also used frequently which helps make the pages of words less daunting for young readers.
The characters
Apart from Horrid Henry, the main characters are his long suffering parents and his little brother, Perfect Peter (age 6). Peter is perfect - kind, thoughtful, generous, never tells a lie, has a tidy bedroom - wouldn't life be easy if all children were like him? I like Perfect Peter , but unfortunately, he generally takes the brunt of most of Henry's nastiness. He is pretty gullible and often falls for Henry's tricks, which include being sold as a slave to a friend!
Many of the stories focus on Henry's life at school. Like Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter, all of his classmates have alliterative descriptions in front of their names, e.g.: Anxious Andrew, Athletic Al, Beefy Bert, Brainy Brian, Greedy Graham, Moody Margaret, Rude Ralph, Sour Susan and Weepy William.
Rude Ralph is Henry's best friend and his accomplice in many nefarious schemes, but it is Moody Margaret, Henry's nemesis, who appears in most of the stories. Horrid Henry hates girls and in particular, his neighbour, Moody Margaret. She is a very suitable enemy for Henry, because she is nearly as devious as he is and even comes out as the victor on occasion. Moody Margaret is not particularly likeable (well, she IS moody), so we always want Henry to beat her.
The last character I must mention is Miss Oddbod, Henry's teacher. Not a friendly, tolerant teacher, to say the least, and Henry, of course, earns her wrath on an hourly basis. She is unlike any of the teachers in my daughter's school, who more closely resemble Miss Lovely (Peter's teacher), but I have distant memories of my own primary school teacher who was just as fierce as Miss Oddbod. Again the reader has a lot of sympathy for Henry when he goes up against his teacher.
Horrid Henry's 2008 Annual
I bought this annual just before Christmas. It was on special offer - buy 2 annuals for £8. So, it cost just £4, which I felt was a bit of a bargain.
The annual is written by Francesca Simon (the author of the series of books) and illustrated by Tony Ross (who also illustrates the books). The contents page is very long, showing just how much they have managed to cram into this slim hard-backed annual. As well as showing the contents of each page, there are sharp toothed insects crawling over the page which has a large yellow splodge of ink and Horrid Henry peering onto the page with an evil look on his face. It is these details that make the book interesting for children.
The annual is full of brightly coloured pictures and a good mix of text and pictures. Few pages would be daunting for a child to read on their own, although depending on their ability they may struggle with some of the harder words, e.g. chlorine, ingredients, intergalactic.
Hello Everyone
The annual starts on page 9 with 'Hello Everyone'. A nice introduction to the annual by Henry. "Yippee! This mega-mean annual is all about ME… If your parents are stinky, like mine, and ban you from watching TV, check out all the other things you can do, like puzzles and quizzes and making things out of scraps of paper and lots of gloppy glue - SPLAT!" I love the language that is used here. It really could be written by a nine year old boy and it makes the educational activities in the book sound like naughty fun.
Also included on page 9 are two pictures of Henry. One is obviously drawn by Tony Ross, as anyone who has seen his illustrations in the books will recognise; the other is from the TV series (currently shown on CITV at 3.30pm every weekday). This is the first book I have seen that merges the books with the TV series. Although the TV series takes it's inspiration from the books, changes and additions are often made. Throughout the book illustrations come from either source. I like this, because for children who have only seen the TV series, I think it would make it easier to introduce the books to them.
The book is divided into months, so for example, January includes:
January
New Year's Resolutions - Three handwritten lists of resolutions are shown: Horrid Henry's, Perfect Peter's and Horrid Henry's corrected version of Perfect Peter's resolutions (including to keep out of Henry's room). On the opposite page the reader can write down their own list of resolutions. I am happy to say that my daughter's list more closely resembled Perfect Peter's list than Horrid Henry's.
I was a little worried that my daughter (then aged 6) would find it hard to read the handwriting on this page. Perfect Peter's handwriting is fairly neat, but Horrid Henry's is very messy. However, my daughter managed to read it all easily.
Over the page we have 'How to make a Horrid Hanger'. I assume that this is in relation to the New Years Resolutions for Peter to 'stay out of Henry's room'.
Turn over the page to find 'Fun Facts Files: Back to School'. Of course, January is when the children return to school after the Christmas break. This page introduces the reader to some of Henry's classmates. This is a very useful page for children who have not come across Horrid Henry before. It describes each characters loves, hates, best friend and 'when I grow up I want to be…'. This provided a good talking point for my daughter and myself as we discussed what we would put in each of these categories about ourselves.
New page; new activity. 'Bring Horrid Henry and his Classmates to Life'. This activity is to make a cardboard cut-out of Henry and some of his classmates. When my daughter did this, we turned it into a game by playing skittles with the cut-outs and a marble.
'Who's your best friend?' This is a multiple choice quiz which attempts to answer which of Henry's classmates would be your best friend. The choices are Brainy Brian, Gorgeous Gurinder or Horrid Henry. My daughter discovered her best friend would be Horrid Henry. Sigh.
'A Horrid Henry Story: Horrid Henry's Bedtime'. I'm not sure whether this story fits into January or February, but it doesn't really matter. This story was originally written as a World Book Day 2004 book. It has Tony Ross's illustrations and describes a typical bedtime routine for Horrid Henry. Since the story lasts for 13 pages, it obviously doesn't go smoothly.
The Rest of the Book
I started to write about each month in detail, but after 4 pages I decided that a brief description of the contents would be better.
'Easter Egg Hunt'. Spot the easter eggs hidden in Henry's and Peter's rooms.
Wordsearch about the ten plagues.
Dot-to-Dot
Criss-Cross
Some recipes are given:
pancakes
GLOP (don't ask)
Creepy-Crawly Pizza
Invisible Ink
Lots of activities are included:
How to Make a Valentine's Card - Horrid Henry Style.
How to Make a Funny Fortune-Teller
How to Make a Wicked Waterbomb.
How to Make a Code Wheel
How to Make a Ghost costume
How to Make Spooky Spiders
How to Make a Halloween Feel Box
How to Make Christmas Crackers
The Best Bits
Squeezed onto half a page is a description of a leap year and the question 'what will you do with your extra day?' This actually had me thinking too. I had never thought of a leap day in this way and I think that it is a nice idea that we have an extra day to do things in. It was a good discussion point with my daughter. There are lots of these types of questions sprinkled throughout the annual.
My favourite parts of the annual must be 'Horrid Henry's School Fair' and 'Horrid Henry's Hike'. These show a film reel of two of the Horrid Henry episodes and the reader is expected to tell the story in their own words. I think that this is a fantastic idea. It's just so educational and I love hearing my daughters tell stories in their own way. It's liberating and fuels the imagination. I can't praise this concept enough.
'Write your own Horrid Henry Story'. The start of a Horrid Henry story is given - about Horrid Henry going to the beach. There is then a page of horizontal lines so that the reader can finish writing the story. Now my daughter is a fabulous reader, but she hates writing. I was amazed at how excited she was to try this activity. She got bored after a few sentences, but I think that she will go back to it again when she is ready and a beautiful story will emerge.
My daughter's favourite part of the annual is 'How to run a Club'. She has created a 'Big Belly Club' with some of her friends and she has taken a lot of ideas from this annual. I think that is great because it does encourage social interaction, although, perhaps unsurprisingly, some children are excluded from the club and this has caused some problems at school.
The Worst Bits
The worst parts of the annual are related to the worst parts of the books and in fact the concept of Horrid Henry. He is a naughty boy and it can encourage children to be naughty. Since my eldest daughter became a fan of Horrid Henry, her behaviour towards her younger sister has deteriorated. She is always calling her 'worm', a favourite Horrid Henry insult, and she copies other aspects of Henry's relationship with his brother, Perfect Peter.
There are pages in the book that describe pranks to play on people and he gives tips on how to 'tame' parents including 'Never take no for an answer'. This is not going to have a positive impact on children's behaviour.
Having said this, Horrid Henry has had a very positive impact on my daughter. Despite being a fantastic reader, she was always very reluctant to read. However, over the past few months I have often caught her reading Horrid Henry books after bedtime and she delighted in reading the annual to me in preparation for this review. She is now an avid reader, reading a wide range of books, and I do believe that it is thanks to 'Horrid Henry'. I know of other parents who would say the same thing. Horrid Henry makes children WANT to read.
Other Horrid Henry Books
Horrid Henry Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman Horrid Henry and the Bogey Babysitter Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend Horrid Henry and the Mummy's Curse Horrid Henry's Mega Mean Time Machine Horrid Henry's Haunted House Horrid Henry's Nits Horrid Henry's Revenge Horrid Henry's Secret Club Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb Horrid Henry's Underpants Horrid Henry Meets the Queen Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick Horrid Henry's Christmas Cracker
There are lots more and it feels like new books are written all the time. Check out the official website at www.horridhenry.co.uk.
Conclusion
Should you buy this book? Yes. If you have a child under 8 then at some point they are going to love Horrid Henry. You can't avoid it I'm afraid, so I think that it is best to encourage the love of reading and keep your fingers crossed that they don't get too many ideas from Henry. This is such a well written and presented book with lots of activities to entertain and educate your child that it should be in pride of place on your bookshelf!
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