Book reviews: Comedy books

Disaster Bunnies Save the Day! (kind of) by Dinah Capparucci (Scholastic, £4.99 PB)

Rightly shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Dinah Capparucci’s first book, Aliens Don’t Eat Dog Food, introduces Jordan, Ryan and Boy Dave to the world: three all-too-recognisable schoolboys who find themselves swept up into bizarre adventures. Disaster Bunnies Save the Day! (kind of) continues the mayhem, with the boys tying themselves in knots with their alternating good hearts and bad morals.

The writing combines warm humour with plenty of slapstick, and I often found myself laughing out loud as I read it to my children. The beauty of this book is that neither the characters or setting ever lose contact with reality, despite the frequent surreal flourishes.

None of this was our fault, except maybe what happened to Davina’s princess bedroom, which was really an act of mercy, in so much as we put it out of its misery