Mooki vs the terrible toys by Scotty James with Steve Worland and Dave Atze

MOOKI, Cindy and Ralph are best friends who in this first book about their adventures discover an amazing toy store.  The toys in this store fall into two categories, friendly and helpful or mean, scary and evil!  While searching for COG, a robot MOOKI sees advertised on a billboard, Ralph is taken by some evil drones, and the friends must rescue him.  MOOKI who can fly his spaceship alone must conquer the escalator from hell, join forces with a mega-brave tiny velociraptor and teach the evil boss a lesson. 

This new series by Scotty James, a medal winning Australian snowboarder, is a visual delight and the story moves quickly and is truly enjoyable for parents and children alike.  I can see it appealing to newly independent readers who are enjoying the move to novels without too much text to bog down their fluency and older children who like the graphic novel format of books. 

I love the addition of humour and modern toys, while the story borrows from the Toy Story ideas of toys coming to life when humans aren’t around, Cindy seems to be an exception.  I love the simplicity of the drawings and the way the story flows, I can’t wait for the second book.  I know this will be a popular title in the school library and I am sure it will be a favourite among all readers too, as the main characters are likeable and relatable. 

I highly recommend this book and the series.

Themes: Space, Friendship, Animals, Good vs Evil.

Mhairi Alcorn