Book Review: Warning: This Book Contains Mild Peril by CSF Abbott

The new children’s adventure book, Warning: This Book Contains Mild Peril, is a towering achievement from a fantastic debut author.

Lumina thinks it looks exciting!

Populated by a huge cast of crazy characters, from Gladys (Mother Nature) to the WhatIfs (whose job is to fire up the imagination of human beings from Mozart to Oscar Wilde – and every child) and massive Guardian Angels in army fatigues this book will keep you on your toes.

Young Amber Thwing, a tomboy with an aversion to books and a large cast of siblings, is sent on a mission to rescue children who have been accidentally sucked into ‘The Void’. To do this, she must travel to a variety of interesting places around the world and talk to a succession of wise animals, amongst others Imelda the mother anaconda and Jason the sports masseur bear who lives, bizarrely, in the Okavango Delta (reasons are given!).

As well as being a wildly imaginative romp through all kinds of mad cap situations, WTBCMP is also very educational; Amber has to visit all kinds of interesting places, using a good old-fashioned reference book to help her, which will surely open young minds to the wonders of the world. Even I learned something – I have to confess I’d never heard of a tenrec (spiky hamster-thing) or a potoo (fluffy grey bird, that looks like a muppet owl).

The author is obviously very well acquainted with the lore and language of modern schoolchildren and family dynamics. Amber’s four siblings, from eight-year-old Nikolaos to sixteen-year-old Amara, all have distinct characters and roles to play. What is particularly amusing is the way the parents are utterly oblivious to all the odd goings on in their house (children disappearing,

conferences of WhatIfs happening in children’s bedrooms) not because they’re not present as is the tradition in children’s books, but because they’re so busy and stressed they will accept ‘he’s in his room’ from a sibling as an adequate reassurance that a child is safe.

All in all, an exciting and thought-provoking book for confident readers over eight.