A Whole Nother Story by Dr Cuthbert Soup

Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a funny book but “funniness” is very subjective. I enjoyed Lemony Snicket for example but only up until about book 6 when I finally succumbed to the pleas of the author to put the book down.

A Whole Nother Story is a whole nother story. I just loved this laugh out loud book all the way through and am very keen to get into the sequel entitled A Nother whole Nother story.

We do seem to have met these characters in other books such as The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Seven Professors of the far north and likewise the plot is not all that original but the writing, witty asides and fun plays on words make this book a winner. You should also watch out for the names of the villains!

Mr Cheeseman is an inventor. He and his beloved wife Olivia have designed a time travel machine but news of this has reached a number of villains and government agencies. These groups try to get their grubby hands on the invention but their motives are for evil and not the good of mankind so Ethan Cheeseman refuses to comply with their demands. The evil of these people unfortunately knows no limits and the lovely Olivia is murdered. Mr Cheeseman and his three ‘attractive, polite, relatively odor free children’ are now on the run.

I know all of this sounds far from funny but you just have to trust me this book is very, very funny. Here is a tiny sample which I hope will convince you.

“If I could give you just one word of advice, it would be … well an incomplete sentence. Besides being grammatically iffy, I’m sure you’d agree that a single word of advice is rarely of much use. Even the phrase ‘Look out!’ (which would prove to be live-saving advice – especially where large falling object or missing manhole covers are concerned) is two words. To simply shout ‘look!’ to a friend as a tuba falls from a ninth-story window … will at best only serve to make sure he gets a good look at the tuba before it parades him, unceremoniously, into the sidewalk.”
Who are the children in this book I hear you ask? Well that is an excellent question. There are two boys and a girl but the names of these three requires a more complex answer. You see every time the family is forced to flea the aforementioned villains the children select for themselves new names. The first is fourteen year old Barton who later becomes Joe Smith – too ordinary I agree but wait till you see the spelling – Jough Psmythe. Then there is eight year old Crandall who chooses the new name of Gerard LeFontaine and lastly twelve year old Saffron who will now be known as Maggie or more formally Magenta-Jean Jurgenson . I should also mention Steve but you will need to read the book for yourself to discover how he fits into this special family. There is also a wonderful and very helpful family dog called Pinky.

If you are a fan of Lemony Snicket and you like a fast paced, action packed and wildly funny book then look for A whole Nother Story in our library soon. The author has a delicious name and the web site is WILD!! It includes an audio sample which is well worth listening two plus a written extract and an interview with the author.