Saturday 2 September 2017

Sam Hannigan's Woof Week by Alan Nolan (Children's, 9 years +, 10/10E)

  August 2017, The O'Brien Press, 160 pages, Paperback, Review copy

Summary from O'Brien Press
Animal lover and champion Irish dancer Samantha Hannigan is having a truly woof week. She and her best friend Ajay were messing around with the Brain Swap 3000, one of her grandad’s crackpot inventions, and now Sam is stuck inside the body of her neighbours’ dog – and it’ll be days before they can change her back!

Nayu's thoughts
This is a wonderfully hilarious read! A few bits grossed me out, hence the not quite perfect grade, but overall I loved this and am looking forward to rereading it already. Bruno is an evil brother, forcing Sam into an unpleasant situation (I would have liked the bathroom issue to be explored further...) but she has guts to keep going and attempt the crazy lie about her appearance which spirals into a life changing event. 

I loved the bumbling goons who added to the humour, I loved how Sam's grandmother was nuts enough to initially be oblivious to Sam's changed self, then not being overly surprised when she understands the truth. What I loved most was what happened at the end, because if she hadn't cared about animals and been a decent dog-girl human being she could have taken advantage of the mony, but she didn't. 

It's her brother's fault that she finally gets what she wants, along with a greater insight into being a dog, skills which I'm sure will benefit her in the future. She certainly gets creative with the truth, and several times I thought she'd be found out as being an initially bogus shelter but everything works out ok. The interactions at the dance festival and at school had me staring in disbelief by what people were happy to be fooled with, while Sam was incredibly happy to not be viewed as a science experiment (just a weird girl with a good heart). 

Suggested read
For more laughs without shapeshifting check out The Matilda Effect by Ellie Irving (Children's, 9 years +, 10E/10E)

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