Nanny Piggins and the Accidental Blast-Off

R.A. Spratt (author)

Random House, Australia: 2011; 265pp

ISBN: 9781864718591

Genres: adventure, humour

Issues: imagination

Nanny Piggins, the former circus performer, is back in the role she performs best – the zany nanny to the Green children. Derrick, Samantha and Michael's mother disappeared some years ago. Their penny-pinching father hired Nanny Piggins because she was the cheapest help available but has long since realized that he got rather more than he bargained for.

Ms Piggins regards school as torture therapy and feels that the best activities for children are those that involve a great deal of dirt, loud bangs, cake and chocolate. Preferably all four. So when Mr Green becomes determined to win the Father of the Year Award offered by his law firm, the children realise that there may be a problem. They may actually have to spend some time with their father. Erk.

The fourth novel in the series, Nanny Piggins and the Accidental Blast-Off maintains the manic pace of the previous adventures. Sarah Piggins is rather like a combination of Mary Poppins and Pippi Longstocking in her wilder moments. A pig with Attitude (and great culinary skill), Nanny Piggins will try anything at least once – including bungy jumping off the roof with the elastic from Mr Green's underpants, exerting the enormous power of a Stop sign (as a lollypop lady), fixing one of NASA's rockets, and encouraging Santa to give away his house-breaking habits and come in the front door. Along the way she and the children and Nanny Piggin's brother, Boris the (ballet dancing) bear, encounter a great deal of delicious food, some interesting people – and a few enemies.

An experienced television comedy writer, R.A.Spratt has created a wonderful character in Nanny Piggins – one that encourages readers to play imaginatively and laugh out loud at the impossible, cartoon-style adventures of the flying pig. Great fun and made to be read aloud, as the episodic chapters work well for sharing with a class or bedtime reading.

See also: Nanny Piggins & The Wicked Plan