The Misadventures of Mina Mahmood School Inspectors

Mina and her best friends Reema and Mobeen return for new (mis)adventures in this second book in a series. Book one, in which Mina and co experience the thrills of the school trip, has just been longlisted for the prestigious Branford Boase Award. Here the long-awaited Year Six post-exam ‘party bonanza’, including school disco, water balloon fight and – best of all – class trip to Fisbo’s Circus, is under threat thanks to the arrival of school inspectors. All young readers and teachers will immediately understand the tension that provokes. Selected as school ambassadors, Mina and her friends are under strict instructions from their very strict headmaster not to embarrass him. This challenge is made even harder when Barney’s pet tarantula Buttons escapes, scuttling off down the school corridor. Chaos follows of course and it makes for very funny, highly entertaining reading. Author Farhana Islam is a primary school teacher and children will recognise many aspects of their own school life, while Reema’s attitude will strike chords too: ‘Lunch was usually my favourite lesson of the day,’ she says at one point. Her Bangladeshi heritage is an integral part of the story too and the depiction of her class a real and recognisable reflection of multi-cultural contemporary Britain. Recommended for school or home reading.