I do love a Robin Bennett book and have previously reviewed several of his books on here as well as joining him for a chat where he shared his five (and a half) writing tips. So I was always going to say “yes” to reviewing his latest book in the Monster Max series, This Time it’s Sirius.

This has all the essential ingredients: a logo (“Protect and do good stuff”), secret clubhouses, monsters, werewolves, and the cutest puppy. I’m a sucker for a cute puppy with a hidden backstory – check out my exclusive interview with Claire Fayers about her book Stormhound if you don’t believe me.

Anyway, back to Sirius. As a grown-up, the plot was entirely predictable, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. This is a perfect fun read for the last week of the school holidays, and doubly perfect given the full moon on the 30th August is both a supermoon and an extremely rare blue moon (hence the phrase “once in a blue moon”). I think we should get practising our werewolf howls, although I’m gutted to discover the moon won’t actually turn blue.

Blurb

Max can turn into a huge monster just by BURPING, and back again when he SNEEZES. Now Max and his best friend Peregrine realise that a dangerous pack of werewolves from Max’s home country of Krit are closing in on him and his family. But Max hasn’t told anyone about Sirius the tiny werewolf cub he found, smuggled home, and decided to keep…

About the author

When Robin grew up he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. After that he had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)… until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys.