Mad Grandad and the Wicked Pictures + and the Mutant River by Oisin McGann (Children's, 5 years + 9/10E)

 7th August 2017, The O'Brien Press, 64 pages, Paperback, Review copies

 Book summary from The O'Brien Press

Mad Grandad and the Wicked Pictures

 Grandad and Lenny are trying to paint the living-room. But Grandad’s paint is very old and it’s gone quite strange. It has stripes and patterns in it…..
At first it seems like fun to make pictures with this weird paint. Lenny calls his picture ‘Fang’ because it looks like a creature, and Grandad calls his ‘Mildred’.

Lenny and Grandad decide to hang their pictures on the wall and go in search of frames. But when they return the pictures have disappeared. It looks like they’ve been stolen, but then they realise something else has happened....

That’s when things start to go terribly, terribly wrong…

 

Mad Grandad and the Mutant River

Lenny goes fishing with his grandad, and he is amazed when they drag up a mermaid in her car! But then they find there is much, much worse waiting for them in the deep and dirty river ...

They all end up fleeing from a crazy fisherman who wants to trap the mermaid.

Nayu's thoughts

I've read books by Oisin before so I knew I'd like this new to me series (which has over 4 books now). While I'm not 100% in love with the illustrations which are on the creepy side, I know younger readers will love it. Both stories are very much major peril tales, with Grandad and Lenny having to get used to a slightly unusual world in order to survive and outwit their opponents. I loved the Mer-model, such a great way to describe that mermaid, who has a lot of attitude. I thought that the evil fisherman looked a little like the grotesque monster that inhabits the river, which was amusing. I loved how the paintings are created, I wish paint like that existed in real life, minus the coming to life part - I don't want to go flat either! 

I felt sorry for Lenny because he and his grandfather have the worst situation in the picture tale-it seemed scarier than being underwater with enraged monsters in and out of the river. What is evident is the fun the two relations have together, which is always a pleasure to read about. I liked how there is always an extra creature to find in the illustrations, and how Lenny's t-shirt changes expression dependin in the scenario.

Find out more on Oisin's website. 

Suggested read 

If you like stories with a boy as the main character check out the exciting: Danny Dingle's Fantastic Finds by Angie Lake (Children's, 7 years +, 10E/10E)