Doctor Bonkers!

Bedtime antics and sibling squabbles are soon forgotten when Rosie puts on her new pyjamas. As she and her brothers – and Bandit the cat – stare intently at a cloud, just one of the detailed images covering the pyjamas, pandemonium breaks loose. The cloud draws them in to its world, and they find themselves hurtling through space, eventually reaching a planet filled with warring Vikings, ancient Egyptians and all sorts of dinosaur species. Emerging from the scene is Professor Starkly-Bonkers who declares himself responsible for the chaos. In trying to fix his vacuum cleaner, he inadvertently created the Doombuster, a machine that muddles up time and space so that all of history now co-exists. Worse, the machine has been stolen – and warring factions from different historical times are intent on finding it. What follows is a madcap dash to retrieve it, in which the children and the Professor must also save their skin.

Slapstick humour and absurd situations abound, matched by high-speed action and language play, most obvious in the Professor’s speech as he mixes words to create weirdly wonderful spoonerisms. Lively and entertaining, the book is sure to find an eager audience.