Hands Up!

The title, a clever pun on the world of puppets and ventriloquism, sets the tone for this extremely whacky and lively fun read.

Magrs introduces us to an eccentric and very egocentric mob of folk, who seem to crave fame and success on TV through both the manipulation of others and their furry toy friends. But who is manipulating whom? As the boy hero and storyteller Jason Lurcher rapidly discovers, maybe the puppets are controlling the asylum and maybe, just maybe, they themselves behave at the behest of the greatest puppet of them all, Mr Punch.

This is compulsive reading. Recommend it to early teenagers and watch them smile with disbelief and delight. There’s a bit of suspect language but nothing too outrageous.