Nicholas and the Wild Ones

When Nicholas encounters ‘the Wild Ones’ at his new school, he is not impressed.  In fact, after explaining to Mum just how awful they are, he announces he won’t go back to school.  Charlie jumps on people from the top of the climbing frame; Reggie ‘yanks kids up by their underpants’; Jake snatches other people’s sweets and eats them in front of the victim; and Cindy is big and pushes people.  It’s bullying, says Mum, Dad says you have to stand up to them, and Gramps shows Nicholas how to ‘put up his fists’.  No, says Gran, that isn’t the way.  Nicholas must be ‘creative’.  Mum agrees, but says he really must go to school as he wants to be an inventor.  So off he goes again, and the Wild Ones are as bad as ever.  He is bullied again, but this time, three of the Wild Ones start to tease the fourth, Cindy, about a picture she has drawn, and she cries.  Nicholas tells her the picture is ‘cool’ and this is the start of friendship.  After that, Nicholas becomes famous for his invention of a solar-powered helicopter that all the Wild Ones want to learn how to make, and friendship blossoms all round.  Mind you, the Wild Ones are not completely un-wild, and sometimes they have to let loose, so Nicholas must invent a Wild One Converter!  Imaginative and creative and wonderfully wacky, Nicholas and his creator Niki Daly have much in common, and the pictures are as inventive as the hero of the story’s inventions.  Full of life and humour and fun, they convey the bullying in terms that children will find acceptable and will learn from in the best way.  Brilliantly executed and produced!