There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
on 14 March 2017
I think this is a very good book especially for teenagers that still like fiction books because it is funny in a way that you would understand and is not just one story there is a main story and mini story's hope you like it 🌝
TOP 100 REVIEWERon 28 December 2014
I recently read Terry Pratchett's Dragons at Crumbling Castle and was impressed with the promise he showed as a teenage writer. Caitlin blows him out of the water! If you didn't know this piece of writing was conceived by a teenage girl, you would be hard-pressed to guess it.
This is funny, witty, snide, with regular references to high- and low-brow culture, Caitlin uses her own family as a basis for some hilarious anecdotal stories from her teenage life in a large and eccentric family.
The maturity of the writing is astonishing. I laughed out loud several times, and just loved the whole family, from devious yet angelic baby Poppy to overwrought dad Bill.
There is a running joke about Morag's bread that is very funny, some Christmas and Easter tales, holidays, home school inspectors, and Morag as eldest child of five doubles as Caitlin's alter-ego, the slightly-overweight wannabe writer with a chaotic family life living in the back end of nowhere (my home town) living form one child benefit payment to the next.
In one scene, Morag's younger brother gets upset, and gave "a high-pitched wail that sent several devout Muslims to prayer."
In another, a queue waiting for a jumble sale to start "resembled a Chinese dragon made of bobble hats and blue rinses."
Just brilliant, varied, vivid writing.
So so jealous of her talent. I want this to be more widely known, and in schools as well - teenagers should know what others their age can achieve.
Please give this a try. You'll thank me.
This is funny, witty, snide, with regular references to high- and low-brow culture, Caitlin uses her own family as a basis for some hilarious anecdotal stories from her teenage life in a large and eccentric family.
The maturity of the writing is astonishing. I laughed out loud several times, and just loved the whole family, from devious yet angelic baby Poppy to overwrought dad Bill.
There is a running joke about Morag's bread that is very funny, some Christmas and Easter tales, holidays, home school inspectors, and Morag as eldest child of five doubles as Caitlin's alter-ego, the slightly-overweight wannabe writer with a chaotic family life living in the back end of nowhere (my home town) living form one child benefit payment to the next.
In one scene, Morag's younger brother gets upset, and gave "a high-pitched wail that sent several devout Muslims to prayer."
In another, a queue waiting for a jumble sale to start "resembled a Chinese dragon made of bobble hats and blue rinses."
Just brilliant, varied, vivid writing.
So so jealous of her talent. I want this to be more widely known, and in schools as well - teenagers should know what others their age can achieve.
Please give this a try. You'll thank me.
on 12 June 1999
This is a brilliant first novel by a home-educated teenager, combining an unusual tendency towards fantasy with a hilarious but very down-to-earth description of family life in a large homeschooling family. Particularly impressive is her rendering of two-year-old Poppy, given how notoriously difficult toddlers are to convey convincingly in print - Caitlin Moran's ear for dialogue is uncanny. We have just taken our children out of school and Caitlin is a shining example of what not going to school can achieve. Is it too late to hope for a sequel?
on 24 June 2013
I jumped for joy when I found this - having read 'Moranthology' and 'How to be a Woman' 6 times I was desperate to find something else she had written. This was Moran's first book (written in her teens) and is based on her own family - on occation balancing so closely towards tragedy that the story almost tips over the edge, yet you laugh.... and then thank your lucky star that you get to visit the Narmos rather then live with them.
on 20 June 2009
i first read this when i was 9...i've recently re-read it at 24 and i still think it is knock-your-socks-off brilliant!
on 31 May 2015
This description of life in a large family opted out of regular schooling is hilarious and almost totally believable. Almost, because there surely must have been periods where nothing much was happening and life was a bit tedious, verging on the boring? But of course we don't want to know about the flat bits. For a writer as young as Caitlin Moran was when she wrote it, this is superlative stuff; the four (instead of five) stars probably just reflects the tiny extent to which this old reader found it just a little too hectic.
on 30 March 2016
Possibly using her own experiences Caitlin Moran creates a home life in the mid 90's when hippies were having a revival as such.
At the children's insistence they come out of standardised education and try to be home schooled.
This book is hilarious and well meaning I'm only wishing I'd have read it when I was 15 not 37.
Can't wait to read more of her books.
At the children's insistence they come out of standardised education and try to be home schooled.
This book is hilarious and well meaning I'm only wishing I'd have read it when I was 15 not 37.
Can't wait to read more of her books.
on 22 October 2012
If you love Adrian Mole then you'll love the Narmo family. Laugh out loud funny can't believe Moran wrote this at 16.
on 26 October 2011
Currently this book has four reviews. Two of them are five stars - impressive for a book written when the author was fifteen years old. The others are one star - one because of complaints about the price before it was reissued, the other a short rant about Caitlin's award-winning journalism by someone who presumably hasn't read the book. (One should not write reviews of books without having read the book, oh no.) This seems very unfair.
