The Adventures of Bruno Penny : Norbert de Strangle and the Great Museum Robbery - A B Syed

Norbert de Strangle and the Great Museum Robbery is the first book in the Adventures of Bruno Penny series, written by author A. B. Syed.

The story, featuring our hero, Bruno Penny, ace detective (aged 10) and his sidekick, Milo Shot, leads the reader through a mostly fast-paced series of scenes with lots of twists and turns, as well as at least one big surprise, to keep readers hooked until the end of the tale. It is not particularly easy to summarize the plot without giving too much away, or without having to apply a spoiler alert to this review, but suffice to say Bruno and Milo have a rip-roaring time hunting for clues, tracking down dastardly villains and getting caught up in the adventure of a life-time, involving robots, dinosaur eggs and other happenings that most young boys love reading about. I read this book to my three children, who are two boys, aged 12 and 10, and my daughter, aged 9.

One of the really strong points of this book is in the author's creation of a beguiling and unique set of characters. They are also, for the most part, all really imaginatively named - who could resist an arch enemy called Norbert de Strangle (my children and I reckon this is the best baddie-name ever), or a famous painter called Hugh van Cough? Other wonderful characters include the yucky Mrs Butterworth, aptly re-named Mrs Bitterworth by Bruno and Milo, and the mysterious Mrs B., the elderly caretaker, who smells of turnips and watches Sponge Bob Square Pants in her spare time - a fact which really made my children laugh.

My children loved all the main characters but, for me, the one that has most impact is Bruno himself. His appeal is in his ordinariness; he is just a regular kid who wears glasses that slide down his nose, and who has parents who can be tiresome at times, particularly because they won't let him have a mobile phone. Through Bruno and his relationship with Milo, amidst all the fantasy and wackiness of the story, the author, Syed, deals with everyday problems that children face and can identify with, like falling out with their friends and sharing in each other's successes. A minor, but very poignant moment, in the book is when Milo finally reveals to Bruno that he has taken up knitting. Milo is really worried that Bruno is going to laugh at him when he finds out about this unusual hobby, but you can almost sense his relief when he realises that this finally-revealed secret is actually no big deal to Bruno at all. The other scene which stood out for me is the one where Bruno rings Crimestoppers to report a crime, and gets rumbled by his mum for doing so. This is a really tense, well-written scene and my children were visibly squirming as I read out the part where Bruno's mum sits him down and gives him `the chat'. Your average child will never see a dinosaur egg like Bruno and Milo do, but will most definitely relate to being caught fibbing to his or her parents, and having to take the rap for it afterwards.

The other major appeal to this book is quite simply that it is really funny! Syed has a very witty turn of phrase, is able to write with impeccable comic timing, and also clearly understands what makes young boys really laugh: slapstick humour, bogeys and gross old ladies - it's all there and guaranteed to raise a smile on the face of even the most serious-natured child. My children loved the visual gags, the general silliness and the corny jokes, like Mrs Butterworth keeping her wig attached to her head with `Wiglu'. But underneath all the light-hearted nonsense, lies a more subtle and deadpan layer of humor which I like to believe that the author has created, not only for the older child reader, but to keep any grown-ups reading the book thoroughly entertained as well. My children could not see what was so funny about Milo (when he is held captive but is desperate for the loo) saying: "You`ve got to let me go, it's my universal declaration of human rights!", but I thought it was hilarious. Equally amusing were the references to Simon le Bon, and to Bruno's dad singing Duran Duran songs, a habit which irks Bruno no end. The only gags that, personally speaking, I would have left out of the story were the references to the place-name `Knesington Square' and to the character-name `Carl Rosenfled' which, as jokes, were a bit wasted on my children and, from an adult's point of view, kept coming across as accidentally mis-spelt words in the text.

As far as my children were concerned, they all loved the book, particularly my two boys. All three of them wanted to hear more about Dr Watson, the rabbit, and Clarence, the Pekinese dog, and wanted to see them developed further as characters. As mentioned earlier, the appeal of this book partly is in its normality, and this was ably demonstrated yet again in the scene where, when Bruno isn't tracking down master-mind criminals, he still has to feed his rabbit and muck out its cage.

The book is intentionally fast-moving and action-packed, particularly towards the end. There are no violent scenes in it, but my youngest child (daughter, aged 9) found the section quite hard, where Dr Watson, the rabbit, gets thrown "roughly" into a room and is "scared witless" as a result. Older children may be able to cope with a description like this and, indeed, my two boys did not mind it so much, but my daughter got a bit upset by it, and wanted to know if Dr Watson was ok (I assured her he was!).

A final tip would be to say that the book could benefit from some small, basic illustrations to help give the reader a breather from the text. This did not apply to my children as I was reading it out aloud to them but, as the wording is quite dense in places, a little picture interspersed here and there would certainly help break up the description for the younger reader, who is reading this story by him or herself.

All in all, this story is a `ripping yarn', receiving a big thumbs-up from me and all three of my children. We can't wait to read the second story in this series, so more of the same from Bruno and Milo, please. And my children said to ask whether Dr Watson can go with them on the next adventure?!

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