Book Review: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

[Maxwell Shadow]

Title of the book: The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Author: Russell Brand
Illustrations: Chris Riddell
Genre: Illustrated fairy story with a modern twist

Why this book?
I was bought this book last Christmas by my other half who knows I love this illustrations of Chris Riddell (he does a lot of Neil Gaiman's stuff) and thin Russell Brand is quite funny. I decided to use this reading challenge to finally get it read since it's say on my bookshelf all year and since it wasn't that long story wise (it's mostly about the pictures!) I managed to get it read in on night.

Short summary of the story:
If you know the fairy story this book is retelling then you already know the basic plot. To pad things out a little we first learn about the terrible people (mostly) who live in the town. As the story begins they are getting ready for their favourite festival, "The Most Gorgeous Child in Hamelin" pageant. All the annoying and terrible kids are taking part, everyone except Sam who seems to be the only likable person in the story! Just as the pageant is about to start the rats descend on the town and go nuts. The vulgar descriptions of what the rats get up to (mostly pooping everywhere) were a bit much for me here but a kid would find them really funny, especially with the pictures!
Just as the town appears destroyed the piper turns up and says he will get rid of the rats for a sandwich and a bag of gold. The town council agree so he plays his pipe and takes the rats away. Of course the council go back on their promise and refuse to pay the piper for they are greedy and have no principles. The piper doesn't take kindly to this betrayal so plays his pipe again and leads off all the children of Hamelin, all except Sam who is good so is spared.

Good points / bad points:
Good - illustrations
Good - story and twist on the original tale
Good - character decriptions
Good - will appeal big kids/early teens
Good - glossay and ongoing definitions of difficult words

Bad - too vulgar for me
Bad - definitions annoyingly break the story flow.
Bad - reads like Russell Brand is speaking the story which at times means odd/dodgy phrasing.
Bad - narration on many occasions talks directly to the reader which feels patronising and odd.

Summary: I wouldn't read it again but the pictures might be worth a re-visit in the future!