Maddy Yip's Guide to Life; Sue Cheung

Everyone in Maddy Yip’s family is good at something. There’s a cabinet full of prizes, trophies and certificates attesting to the family’s success, unfortunately none of them belong to Maddy. Her trophy for winning pin the tail on the donkey at Bella’s birthday party isn’t quite cutting it when it comes to the talent stakes.

With the help of best friend Dev, coaster-eating grandpa Agung and her brothers Oli and Jack, Maddy is determined to find out what she is actually good at. Everyone has to be good at something, right…

Jam-packed with hilarious antics and laugh-out-loud moments, Maddy Yip’s Guide to Life is a very funny take on the life of an eleven year old who is desperately trying to find her way in the world. The whole thing is fast-paced and fizzes with fun as Maddy goes from one failed attempt to another including marshmallow eating, drawing blindfolded, baking, breakdancing and magic. There’s also time to badly babysit the evil twins and lose the school guinea pig!

Maddy is a brilliant character who kids will easily identify with as they will no doubt have been in the same position of attempting different things with varying degrees of success to find out what it is that they are good at. FYI - I can solve a Rubik’s cube, am a pretty decent lawn bowls player and was once a county orienteering champion.

Presented as a diary with plenty of lively illustrations, Maddy tells of her various fun-filled and calamitous days in an engaging and conversational voice which very much makes her feel like your new best friend by the end. Just don’t let her give your cat a hair cut and I would probably avoid any offering of homemade cake.

This madcap comedy drama is a very entertaining opening to a new series.

Recommended for 7+.