Barry Loser: I am Not a Loser by Jim Smith

The best thing about this book is that if you're a grown up and a confident reader it will be over quickly.

Barry Loser is a child with a bad attitude and an unfortunate name which is a magnet for name calling. He loves Future Ratboy and hopes to win the talent show as the prize is a Future Ratboy costume. His main 'enemy' is Darren Darrenofski. Darren has an addiction to a fizzy drink called Fronkle and so his breath usually smells of it. He likes to make fun of Barry (Barry is usually quite mean back).

This book is trying very hard to be another Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It has the cartoon drawings and handwriting style font. The illustrations are fun and basic. It attempts to be funny. Young boys who like Wimpy Kid will probably enjoy it but I would never recommend it. It's incredibly insulting, irritating and terribly written. I can't imagine a parent being happy with me if I did (unless this also appeals to their sense of humour). One of Barry's teachers has cross eyes and a bent finger and so Barry constantly makes fun of the fact that you can never be sure who he is looking at. Barry is at least as rude to Darren as Darren is to him. Barry also thinks it's hilarious to harass a single mother by calling her up and asking for poopoo (very mature humour!). He also says "keel" instead of "cool" which was just irritating. The author could potentially pull this off if there was a bit of character redemption at the end or if there was a character like Perfect Peter in Horrid Henry but there isn't. The closest it comes is that Barry has to write an apology to the single mother but you can tell he's not really sorry. The characters all have really irritating names too (Mrs Trumpet Face or Darren Darrenofski for example). He also uses the phrase "history of the universe amen" (or something similar) more than once - I'm not really sure why the "amen" was necessary and it just bugged me.

The final thing that bothered me about this book is the bit about the spellchecker (author) in the back as it states that he graduated with first class honours from art school. If that is the case then I would expect him to produce something of a much better quality than this.

As I said, I think young boys who enjoy books such as Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid will enjoy this book but I would much rather recommend the other better books from this genre instead of this one.

I give it 1/10.

Title: Barry Loser: I am Not a Loser
Author: Jim Smith
Publisher: Jelly Pie
5-12 Fiction