Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers

Product Information

Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face are a mischief-making brother and sister who are not afraid to make a mess or strike out on their own adventure.

John Dougherty (author) - Wikipedia John Dougherty (author) - Wikipedia

John Dougherty was born in Larne, Northern Ireland, and not many years later they made him go to school–an experience he didn’t find entirely enjoyable. With metafictive flare, a truly expert deployment of absurdity, and an unrelenting song about jam, Dougherty’s narrative is as self-reflexive and entrancing as a Penrose staircase, populated with delightfully inscrutable characters and brought to rollicking life with Ricks’ spot illustrations. Born and raised in Larne, Northern Ireland, John now lives in Stroud in Gloucestershire with his wife, two children, a few chickens and several bees.They bring news of the badgers’ treachery to King Toothbrush Weasel (don’t get us started on the story behind his name…), who sends them on a quest to rid the land of badgers.

Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face Series John Dougherty Collection 6

His first book was published in 2004 and he left teaching the same year to concentrate on his writing career. Along the way they encounter raccoons who are definitely NOT badgers in disguise, a really REALLY long traffic light, a rabbit in a prickly coat, and a banana-eating hammerhead shark, all leading to a showdown with the badgers. John Dougherty, author of the eye-poppingly funny new Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face series (illustrated by David Tazzyman of Mr Gum fame), ruminates on imagination and surrealism in children’s books.

My daughter liked the way these stories were incorporated, famous stories such as Treasure Island and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as made up ones.

Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Evilness of Pizza

In fact, I was so thrilled that I didn’t even notice the article next to the review until a couple of days later. The villainous badgers have escaped from prison, and it’s up to Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face to find them and put them back! Apparently, the aim of surrealism was to explore the unconscious mind and “liberate thought from the constraints of logic”, whilst its practitioners “startled the conventional world with imaginary worlds in which natural laws were suspended”. And I’ve realised since that, really, what I was trying to do was to get back into the mind of a child at play. Do not open this book unless you have the training of a ninja librarian, or great calamity may befall.b) to remove the brakes from my imagination; to switch off the internal censors that tell me, but that ’s impossible, or, that doesn ’t make sense, or, you can ’t do that. His books have been shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards - and one was chosen by The London Times as one of the Best Children’s Books of the Year 2011 - but, more importantly, they make children giggle. Slapstick humor abounds in this illustrated easy chapter book that is sure to be popular with fans of Dav Pikley and Jon Scieszka. When you had no idea where your game of let ’s pretend was going to end up, but it was fun getting there?

Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face - Penguin Random House

With Ninja Librarian, Miss Butterworth, trapped in chapter eight, our intrepid heroes journey through a bizarre collection of stories, meeting various pirates, zombies, animals, and Draxxar the Doombringer, in their quest to find their friend.The article was one in which a chap by the name of Philip Howard examined the word ‘surreal’, explaining in a few column inches what it actually means.