How to be a Genius Kid – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Memorable, fun, cool, science, genius.
Children’s book title: How to be a Genius Kid.
Children’s author: Waldo Pancake a.k.a. Jim Smith.
Genre: Children’s fiction, illustrated.
Published by: Faber Childrens.
ISBN: 9780571380046.
Recommended for children aged: 5-8 year-olds.
First published: Paperback June 2024.
This children’s book is ideal for: Less confident readers in KS1 and KS2.
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Our review:
Winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Smith, is back with his new series, How to Be a Genius Kid. The book starts with the end of a school week where two characters, named Graham and Flea, become unlikely friends on their walk home. Somehow, they decide to make a fact book together, which, of course, turns out to be this book.
Smith manages to fill the plot with scientific facts, squeezing them implicitly into silly back-and-forth banter, in speech bubbles that tend to run out of space and evade its speaker. Comical misspellings and text-ese language present science as mind-bogglingly fun, the explicit message being that becoming clever is “coool, guys”.
The doodled characters and scrawled dialogue are relatable for children in their simplicity, rendering this book a brilliant resource for motivating a love of reading and drawing while offering accessible and highly memorable science information.
Our verdict:
Aimed at children aged 5-8, this book is an effective high-low option for children who feel intimidated by ‘older’ books, and although technically a chapter book, it doesn’t feel like a chapter book!
Many thanks to Faber Children’s for the review copy.
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If you like How to be a Genius Kid by Waldo Pancake you might also like: Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey, The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, Brain-fizzing Facts: Awesome Science Questions Answered by Dr Emily Grossman and Alice Bowsher and Amazing Facts Every 8 Year Old Needs To Know by Katherine Brereton and Steve James.
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