The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice

Author A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Mini Grey
Narrator A.F. Harrold
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date 3 September 2020
Run Time 1 hours and 48 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction: Humorous stories, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Life skills and choices, Children’s / Teenage: Chapter books (transitional storybooks), Children’s / Teenage: Poetry, Children’s gift books.

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice written and read by A.F. Harrold.

A riotous celebration of words and a modern take on cautionary tales – featuring advice on parrots, gravy, mathematics, castles (bouncy), spiders, vegetables (various), breakfast, cakes, and removing ducks from soup.

Advice comes in many shapes.
Poems come in many shapes.
And so, it follows, poems of advice come in many shapes too.
Sometimes they look you in the eye and say, ‘Do this! Don’t do that!’
Sometimes they sidle up beside you and whisper, ‘Have you ever thought about … ?’

Not everything in this book is necessarily good advice, and not all of it is sensible advice. (But if you take the bad or un-sensible advice and don’t follow it, then it may become useful advice in its own way.)

Packed with silly rhymes, witty wordplay and thought-provoking story poems, this collection will delight children of all ages.

Critics Review

Amusingly formal... vibrantly colored illustrations.

Horn Book Magazine

[A] generous poetry collection...Grey’s illustrations capture the freewheeling spirit of the poems

Booklist, starred review

This is young fiction of the very best quality, showcasing inspiration, inventiveness and an intoxicating passion for storytelling. The Imaginary has the potential to be a family favourite and a future classic

Booktrust on THE IMAGINARY

A lovely collection of poems that play with language […] The illustrations are integral to a lot of the poems, and are Mini Grey's usual wonderful, detailed and hilarious style.

NetGalley Reviewer

A hilariously daft, fantastically funny and beautifully illustrated book. This book of super silly poems (or very important advice depending on how you look at it) really brightened up our bedtime reading. [...] I’m sure this book would be a favourite of families who love to have a giggle and get silly!

NetGalley Reviewer

This beautifully bonkers book is a wonder to behold. Expertly crafted, dizzying in its imaginative range and deliciously absurd, The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice is inspiring, uplifting, touching and very very very funny.

Kate Wakeling

The Book Of Not Entirely Useful Advice is proper fun; it’s not just slightly fun in some parts, all of it is about as much fun as it could possibly be. If there are any teachers left who think the point of poetry is to do children good, like broccoli, this is the book to change their mind … a comic tour de force which will be adored by children and, I would like to bet, very many grown ups.

Kate Milner

From singing lunchboxes to birthday surprises, A F Harrold’s collection is a delightfully eclectic cornucopia of wonderful, wacky weirdness

Joshua Siegal

Mix AF Harrold’s words
with Mini Grey’s illustrations,
and stand well back.
This book fizzes with inventiveness
and there’s nothing
you can do about it.

Philip Ardagh

a wonder – funny, inspiring, full of surprises and a delight to share with young readers

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