Title: Popcorn-Eating Squirrels: Go Nuts on Everest
Author: Matt Dickinson
Illustrator: Calloway Berkely O’Reilly
Publisher: Shrine Bell
Genre: Children’s fiction, Humour
Format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: EVEREST IS WAITING … STORMS, AVALANCHES, YETIS AND ALL!
A million pounds and popcorn for life.
This is the incredible prize on offer if a team can meet the challenge: to make popcorn on the very summit of Mount Everest.
The squirrels have their doubts. They could end up as a snack for a snow leopard. What about frostbitten paws? Will the friends even be able to breathe in the thin mountain air?
But when little Alfie is kidnapped and held hostage by one of the Everest teams, the squirrels begin the deadly climb.
Can they rescue Alfie? What if the yetis attack? And what about evil Rosalba and the thuggish honey badgers?
It s the popcorn-eating squirrels greatest adventure yet!
Review: This is a brilliant book, so funny and maybe even better than the first in the series! The ‘Popcorn-Eating Squirrels Go Nuts on Everest’ is the second book in the Popcorn-Eating Squirrels series although you don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this one. This time the squirrels are heading on a cruise ship with so many cinema screens that they’ll have all the popcorn they want to eat, but after the ship runs into some problems and little Alfie is kidnapped the rest of the squirrels end up heading to Everest to save their friend.
The book is so easy to get into right away and is funny from the start. The first book focused on the squirrels Ben, Cassie and Alfie meeting with Salty and discovering their love of popcorn after sneaking into an old cinema. While there they encountered a strange machine, the Pop-O-Matic 3000 which had some very strange effects when the squirrels used it. This time the machine makes a come back along with some of the other less than savoury characters from the first book and this time they are all heading to the top of Everest to win a lifetime supply of popcorn. The story is good with a lot of humour along the way and a lot of silliness too. I like some of the new characters that appear especially the mole and the other two human teams going up Everest, as well as the return of the other characters which made this book all the more fun to read.
The story feels better than the first one and I enjoyed it a lot more, it felt more funny from the start and I love how Salty is still such a character and what happens to him later on. I don’t want to give away spoilers but there are some great monster moments and I love the appearance of the yeti and what they eat! It’s a great adventure the squirrels go on and I love how this book ended. It’s a very satisfying end to the story and didn’t quite happen how I expected which was a bonus. There are some good but brief descriptions of Everest and the surrounding area which I liked being included too. I know the author is familiar with the location and I like the added details. The book does mention that there will be another in the series which I just can’t wait to read!
The illustrations really make this even better with lots of very funny pictures. The illustustrations appear every few pages in black, white and various shaes of blue. I like books that stick to this kind of singular tone, it doens’t detract from the story at all and the way the pictures look just adds to the humour and fun of the story. All the characters look funny and while the book is funny on its own it’s made even better with these images. Some of the double pages also have the occassional few pieces of popcorn scattered around the borders or are shaded in blue which makes reading long bits of text more fun too.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, even more than the first. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys a silly and funny adventure featuring squirrels, popcorn and silly things happening. It’s perfectly good as a standalone novel, but if you want to see where the squirrels come from then I’d recommend reading the first book too. I can’t wait for book three in the series!
-Read review of book 1 – Popcorn-Eating Squirrels of the World Unite! by Matt Dikinson & Calloway Berkeley O’Reilley
Have you read any of the Popcorn-Eating Squirrels series yet? What do you think of this book? Would you climb Everest for popcorn? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 