Review: Head Kid by David Baddiel

Genre: Comedy

Rating out of 10: 8

Publisher: HarperCollins

First Published: 2018

Plot

From the bestselling author of The Parent Agency, Head Kid is about Ryan, the naughtiest kid at Bracket Wood School. After one prank at the Open Day goes too far, Ryan and his strict headmaster Mr. Carter magically swap bodies. They then have to work together in order to find a way to return to their normal selves, while preparing for the inspection coming up. Ryan has total control over the school... but he realises that he'll have to do something fast, before "Offhead" shut the school down forever.

General Writing

The book is usually very funny, although at times a bit childish. Other than that, I have no complaints about it. The characterisation is excellent, and it really comes through in the dialogue.  

The Illustrations

The illustrator of Head Kid is Steve Lenton, who also illustrates the front cover. The illustrations give you a good sense of what is going on, and I think that they are necessary in this book. At the same time, they don't take away from the story.

Age Range

I would say the age rating for the book should be 8-14. Any younger, and the characters would be less relatable and the concepts may be trickier to understand. Any older, the characters again wouldn't be as relatable and the humour wouldn't be as funny.

Good Things About the Book

• Most of the jokes are really funny
• The chatty, conversational style of writing the writer uses
• The illustrations give you a good understanding of the events
• The characters are interesting to read about
• I like how the author mentions other characters from different books of his; it makes it more interesting, especially if you've read those books

Things I Didn't Like About the Book

• It portrayed all children as hating homework, school and school uniform which isn't necessarily true for real life (but maybe that's just me!)
• The humour can be quite childish, yet that's a personal opinion and that is the author's writing style!

Conclusion

In my opinion, Head Book is a really good book, if at times slightly juvenile. I would give it a rating of 8