Title: The Bolds in Trouble (The Bolds #4)
Author: Julian Clary
Illustrator: David Roberts
Publisher: Andersen Press
Genre: Children’s fiction, Humour
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: The Bolds are an extraordinary family living on an ordinary street.
The Bolds are keen to blend in and not raise the suspicions of their human neighbours. But trouble soon arrives when a very sly fox starts making a nuisance of himself in Fairfield Road.
It’s up to the Bolds to try and stop him – but the solution has them foxed…
*Free copy provided by publisher (as part of The Bolds Box Set) for review…
Review: Once again I’m smiling and laughing after just finishing this fourth installment in the Bolds series! These books just keep getting better and better and this time there is trouble in the neighbourhood as the human residents of Fairfield Road are upset about some recent sightings of foxes and want to do something to get rid of them. The Bolds, being animals themselves (though disguised as humans), don’t want anything to happen to the foxes and try to find a way to rescue them. But things don’t quite go according to plan.
I’ve become a fan of The Bolds series and I can’t help but love every new adventure the family of hyenas disguised as humans gets up to. Although this book can be read as a standalone, it’s definitely more fun if you read the other books in the series first (or at least the first one) so that you know who all the characters are and what the Bolds do. The adventure this time features foxes, but unlike previous stories, this time there are conflicts with some of the animals involved. The story is so funny and very silly throughout although there is a bit of a sad moment towards the ending. It’s made better though by what happens at the very end which was so sweet it just brought such a smile to my face! I love the new set of students in the Bolds’ house, especially Miss Paulina, and although they didn’t feature as much as the students did in the second book (‘The Bolds to the Rescue’), it was still very funny to read about their attempts at becoming human.
The illustrations really make this book so much more fun to read than it already is. There’s something about the fun way that The Bolds and everyone else looks that I just can’t help but smile, and often laugh, at all the funny antics that are shown. Each illustration is in black, white and grey and they appear throughout the story, among the text and sometimes with a full image on one page. Almost every double page has some form of illustration with some pages having some fun borders to liven them up, this along with the easy to read text and separated paragraphs just makes the book feel so easy to read, so it’s great for children who can be a little reluctant to read, like I was when I was younger.
The ending of the story is so good, I love what happens both with The Bolds and who they meet at the end. It really made me smile and was a really heart-warming ending to this book. At the back of the book there is a list of every joke Mr Bold made throughout the story. So many of these jokes are so silly but they never fail to make me laugh, and there are so many new ones I’ve never heard before. Overall this book is such a brilliant addition to the series and I can recommend it to both children and those who are older who have a silly and fun sense of humour. I can’t wait for more adventures from The Bolds.
Have you read any books in this series? What do you think of the idea of hyenas and other animals dressing up and living as humans? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 