Hack and Whack

(, Main)

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Description

Hack and Whack - two angelic looking Viking toddler twins - are on the attack! As they go marauding around their village, upsetting the apple carts, little do they know there is a force far more powerful than they: their mum! The story ends on the terrible two being plunged into a cold bath! Gloriously funny, fast paced action from the queen of funny.

Reviews

"When confronted with the prospect of bedtime, two redheaded Viking siblings go on a rampage through their village, instead. "We're Hack and Whack on the attack," chant the siblings in what becomes the book's chorus, repeated as they tear through a dining hall, topple an (occupied) outhouse, send barrels and logs tumbling, and recruit reinforcements. Simon (the Horrid Henry series) limits her rhyming text to bursts of shouting and noisy sound effects ("Crash! Smash! Splat! Crack! We're Hack and Whack on the attack!"), giving newcomer Cotterill room to run wild, just like the two young Vikings. Her scratchy, crayonlike black line is ideally suited to the book's atmosphere of mounting chaos as pigs, chickens, feathers, and food go flying in the children's wake; loose, hand-lettered text brings additional freewheeling energy (and sometimes appears in speech balloons that feature pointy Viking horns). There is the occasional oddity-- Hack and Whack's formidable mother, in hot pursuit of her children throughout, has a head that looks far too small for her towering body--but it hardly detracts from the book's unbridled mischief and fun." -- Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Francesca Simon is universally known for the staggeringly popular Horrid Henry series. These books and CDs have sold over 20 million copies in the UK alone and are published in 27 countries. Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman won the Children's Book of the the Year award in 2008 at the British Book Awards. She lives in North London with her family. Charlotte Cotterill recently graduated from the Cambridge School of Art Children's Book Illustration MA. She grew up in Nottinghamshire with her family and a love of reading, drawing and playing the clarinet. She now lives in London.