Customer Reviews

Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout

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My daughter (aged 9, nearly 10) has read all 8 of these Mr Gum books. Every time she gets one she can't wait to read it and laughs non-stop all the way through. No sign of getting bored of them! The only slight negative I can think of is that they're fairly short books - they're read and finished in a day

I read these books to my 9 year old daughter, we both love the all the Mr Gum stories and The Secret Hideout is another not to be missed.
Can't wait for the next!!!! Bedtimes are not the same without Mr Gum

If you've got a reluctant reader in your family this series may be just the thing to flick the switch and turn on their love of reading. We have all the Mr Gum books and my boys 9 and 11 love them to bits, they're the scruffiest most well thumbed books on the shelf. I have a dyslexic child who despite a passion for books took a while to learn to read. These Mr Gum books sent him on his way and now he reads so much, he hardly comes up for air! Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout is funny from the first page, hooking kids (and parents) in from the get go. The chapters are funny, crazy and short. Perfect for kids with learning/reading difficulties as too much print on the page can be overwhelming. If you like to laugh - and all children do - you'll love these Andy Stanton books. A great stepping stone, making learning to read fun and an invaluable addition to the family library.

Andy Stanton lives in a wibbly wobbly world of his own. The Mr Gum books are wonderful surrealist humour in the tradition of Spike Milligan and Monty Python. As much fun for adults as for the kids, actually caught myself fighting over this book with my eight year old, who had to remind me that I had bought it for him. The truth is a lemon meringue!

Title: Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout
Author:Andy Stanton
Characters: This book is all about Polly, Friday, Mr Gum and his best and only friend Billy William the Third. My favourite character is Billy William because I like the way the illustrator has drawn him and I like the way he says funny words. The story is about how Polly and Friday have not seen Mr Gum for ages. He is secretly making fog come out of the Sherry Factory (the secret hideout) by throwing steak in the fire. Captain Brazil is giving Mr Gum out of date steak. Mr Gum is hoping he can use the fog to destroy Lamonic Bibber. I am not going to tell you the end because it would spoil it. I absolutely adored the book. My favourite bit was when they exploded! Reading this book makes me feel really happy and made me laugh. I would really, really, really want my friends to read it.

Just like the story ends with a back-to-front chapter, this, book 8, was my first Mr Gum book. I loved it and laughed my leg off, especially, as for me, Mr Gum was from Yorkshire and Friday O'Leary from Northern Ireland. What an odd place Lamonic Bibber is and I'd love to visit The Department of Clouds and Yoghurts.

I will be making sure my mum and dad buy me the other books (or maybe I'll use some of my spends).

The truth is a LEMON MERINGUE!

Alex E (age 6) (spellings provided by the voice of Friday O'Leary)

My 10 year old loves these books! She says the writing and text is different and very creative. She is hooked and we often hear her laugh out loud. FANTASTIC!

We love these Mr Gum books and the only sad thing to mention is that we have now read the whole series and are starting back at the beginning at the moment while we wait for Andy Stanton to write another one! The characters and the way they recur again in each episode with their weird catchphrases and characteristics, all tied together with a very strong goodies vs baddies theme is addictive to both my kids (6 and 8, although I think the 8 yr olds gets the most out of it) and I love reading the stories with them as they are witty at many levels, in fact I sometimes read them before I go to bed because I can't wait to find out what happens next!
Mr Gum is truly evil, as is his sidekick Billy William the Third, whereas lovely Polly and Friday O'Leary are the main good guys who gain support from a wide variety of the weirdest characters imaginable, our favourite being Alan Taylor the gingerbread headmaster with electric muscles! If you like your kids fiction weird, funny and unpredictable, it doesn't come better than this. We have tried many similar series, but none live up to this one. Nice to read them in order (i.e. Youre a Bad Man Mr Gum, first) if you can, to really get the sense of development from one book to the next.
Enjoy!

Well, I've just finished reading this to my two boys (5 & 7). It was our first visit to this odd world, and we loved it so much we shall be going back again and again. Is it funny? Oh yes. All 3 of us were in tears laughing as Crazy Dave wrote his message to Polly & Friday out in birdseed. Inspired stuff.

As usual, there's a secret story at the end. I finished the book with my daughter last night and tonight's task is to read it all over again but in the right order this time..

An inspired idea..