Beano Minnie's Mission of Maximum Mischief (Beano Fiction)

By Author / Illustrator

Beano Studios, Craig Graham, Mike Stirling, Laura Howell

Genre

Comics & Graphic Novels

Age range(s)

Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN

9780008603977

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

09-11-2023

Synopsis

Join Minnie for this next adventure in Beanotown, along with Dennis and Gnasher! Bash Street have made it through to the knockout stages of Super Epic Turbo Cricket European Tour of Mischief for the first time in forever, and due to a case of mistaken identity owing to a rogue Gnasher racing onto the pitch, Minnie has just been made team captain! This should be amazing news, except Minnie's parents don't seem to be happy for her . . . In fact, now that Minnie thinks about it, they haven't been happy in a long while.

Join Minnie on her mission to cheer up her parents again the best way she knows how: with a Super Epic Turbo PRANK. Will it work, or will it unearth what's really going on? Perfect for kids with parents who are splitting up - or just want to read a mega-funny story!

Reviews

Boomic Beano books are fast-paced, loud and energetic madcap adventures, featuring many of the old classic Beano comic characters. These are great chapter books but with plenty of black and white comic strip style illustrations, by Laura Howell, to keep younger readers engaged and laughing at the chaos caused by Minnie and the Bash Street gang. The Illustrations are central to the hilarious antics and are used perfectly with the quips, jokes and events of the story to bring the characters to life.

I love that Minnie is the central character here (The Beano is celebrating Minnie's 70th birthday this year!) and her Mission of Maximum Mischief is all about her girl power, captaining the Bash Street team in the Super Epic Turbo Cricket. This book is gloriously full of Beano classic daftness, grossness and outlandish pranking and as zany as ever with its cast of characters such as Captain Medusa Gorgon (of the opposing Epic Turbo Cricket team, the Bogwarts ), with her head of deadly snakes.

It isn't all fart jokes, itching powder, cranky teachers, calamity and chaos, however, as Minnie's epic joy in her sporting achievements is marred by the no-show of her parents at the match. Parents arguing = the need for a major parent PRANK to pull the family back together, thinks Minne. Cue the many, many, many cups of beans…

What I like about this book in the series is that it firmly takes the Beano books into the current day and feels warm-hearted and fantastical but with threads of very relatable issues and emotions running through it. Madcap Minnie fears she is at fault for her parents splitting up and tries to fix it in her own way (cue the beans again ..) Different friendships, families and individual strengths are portrayed and really celebrated. At the end of the book, Minnie even has a section with a brilliant comic strip style set of instructions of how to create your own comic diary. Beano Minnie's Mission of Maximum Mischief is a fun, lively read packed as full of heart as it is of energy.

208 pages / Reviewed by Jennifer Caddick, teacher