B is for Book!

I thought this was a total winner at first. The tale of the worst class in the school and its visit to the library began well with a particular success in Beastly Barrett and Biff Higson who delight in calling out stupid comments and making the other children giggle and snigger. Everyone who has taught children has met these two and Frank Rodgers knows them well. The Librarian's storytime goes from bad to worse in a dreadfully inevitable way until she reads a ghost story which brings the two horrors to heel. At this point I felt the book was ruined by a trick (the ghostly castle seems to come to life) rather than by a continuation of the very realistic beginning. This is a pity but the story is enjoyable none the less ... although Miss Snitchell's appraisal will criticise her habit of leaving her class during school outings.