Muddle Earth Too

Muddle Earth #2.1 -2.3

by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell (Illustrator)

Once upon a time, a spell went very wrong and Joe Jefferson found himself transported to Muddle Earth, where the wizards are mad, the pink stinky hogs are stinky, and the jokes are truly terrible. Now, two years later, Muddle Earth needs him back. But even with his Wellies of Power, Woolly Gloves of Determination and a saucepan on his head, can Joe Jefferson really defeat the terrifying spectre of evil that threatens to destroy Muddle Earth? Get prepared for another epic battle between the forces of good, evil and everything in between!

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Paul Stewart is a highly regarded author of books for young readers – from picture books to football stories, fantasy and horror. Together with Chris Riddell he is co-creator of the bestselling Edge Chronicles, which has sold more than three million copies and is available in over twenty languages. They have also collaborated together on lots of other exciting books for children of all ages. The Far-Flung Adventure series includes the Gold Smarties Prize Winner Fergus Crane, and Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper, both Silver Nestle Prize Winners. Then there are the Barnaby Grimes books, two Muddle Earth adventures, and the sci-fi Scavenger and fantasy Wyrmeweald trilogies. For younger readers there is the Blobheads series, while for the very young, Paul has written several picture books, including the Rabbit and Hedgehog series, In the Dark of the Night and, his latest, Wings.

Other authors by this name disambiguation Note:
Paul Stewart - business and management books

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is one of the best I have read it is so funny. I like how they have included parts from other books but morphed and twisted them to fit with the theme. Altogether it's one of the best books I have read!

[Keira · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not as good as the first one, and is a little strange at the start, but once you get into it it becomes much much better!
It’s a bit of a strange book as I feel like it has elements from other books; plot lines and characters that are incorporated into the story. There’s a bit of Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, His Dark Materials, The Chronicles of Narnia and they pinch Edward from twilight, and put him in- obviously he’s not the same, but he’s similar- which is slightly odd at the beginning but it gets very good, so it’s okay.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and it was a really good, another comfort read that was really lovely and that I enjoyed a lot.

[Harry W · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a really funny book full of adventure. It introduced a lot of new characters and things not in the first book. Even the cover was funny. During the start and middle of it, it was spread out with lots of bad things happening at every option, but at the end the main bad thing happened, but at the very end
every reader will be rolling on the ground laughing at what happened. I loved reading it and I hope you do to.

[Karl Orbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Muddle Earth books are parodies; parodies of many fantasy books. The first book, was supposedly a parody of Lord of the Rings, though I didn't see it. It was a good book, but the parody was mild in the specifics. This sequel however is far more obviously sending up a number of major fantasy works.

The primary books is sends up are The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe (well Narnia in general) and Harry Potter. Joe returns to Muddle Earth with his sister whilst assembling a flat-pack wardrobe, a model called the Tumnus. Randalf now runs the Stinkyhogs School of Wizardry and he needs help winning a sporting event involving brooms. There is a rival school for royalty run by some bratty kings and queens, two brothers and two sisters... You can see how it pans out.

There are a great many other stories picked over, even Twilight to my horror! With a few modern inventions given the fantasy genre makeover, somewhat Pratchett-style.

Surprisingly it all works rather well. At least it would be surprising with other authors, but the Stewart and Riddell team rarely put a foot wrong. The illustrations are excellent, I particularly like the aints and the idea of the goggle box is genius. It is better than the original, which is a good thing to say for any sequel.

The only thing I really do not understand is why the vast majority of residents of Muddle Earth are so immensely camp? It's very weird when it's a large proportion of the cast.

[Sarah Leenart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up in the library as the audio version read by Clive Mantle as a way to amuse 4 kids on a few car journeys. I was most certainly not disappointed and neither were they. The 6 year picked up no references of course but it still amused her as a funny story. However the 9 year olds and 11 year old were chuckling away at the antics of Joe the Barbarian and his big sister Ella, absolutely loving the parody of Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Twilight (there may be more but I was driving!). Being set in a school as a total parody of Harry Potter this appealed to the age group extremely well and I found myself also thoroughly entertained. It was exceptionally well read by Clive Mantle with an entertaining array of voices for the many odd characters. I can highly recommend this to children and adults alike.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

as most people say, not as good as the first book, and it didnt make me laugh as much. i sort of expected it because on the first one it said "A laugh on every page" and on the second one it didnt. but muddle earth too was very funny all the same :)

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

As before this book features three daft adventures that Joe and the rest embark on. However, the plot’s not important, but the silliness and the fun characters. Each character has their own voice and they all bounce off each other very effectively. Thankfully, they subject of the parody has changed from the first book giving some fresh spoofs of Harry Potter, Narnia and The Great British Bake-Off amongst others. Plot-wise, I would say that this is a weaker book than the first. However, my son enjoyed it immensely as well as the brilliant illustrations by Chris Riddel.

[Isla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up from 4 and a half stars.

Part 2 of childhood nostalgia reads, and boy, do I understand why little me liked this book so much. It was nice to revisit it and pick up on the pop culture references I missed as a child.


Also, Chris Riddells art stays on top.

[Cléa Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good concept, funny, I like how it in incorporates the different classic fantasy universes. Funny read.

[Talula Hepburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at Page 88. It was okay and I’m sure others love it but I just wasn’t enthralled and I have 1500 other books on my TBR.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this. Daft, like the first one and cleverly done too.

[Mladoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une nouvelle trilogie débute au marais qui pue. Jena Michel accompagné de sa grande soeur se retrouvent catapultés élèves à l'école de sorcellerie de Cochonlard.
Nul besoin de préciser les références, elles sont limpides pour tout lecteur qui n'aurait pas vécu dans une grotte ces 20 dernières années avec en tête de liste Harry Potter, Twilight et Narnia.
Le style est toujours aussi simple à aborder. Mais j'ai trouvé ce tome et ce début de trilogie un peu trop galvaudé et l'humour est très poussif à mon goût car les références sont grosses, un peu trop peut-être. J'aurai aimé découvrir une autre facette du marais et non assisté à une réécriture très moyenne de Harry Potter et consorts où le quiquiche prend vraiment trop de place. Tout cela a rendu ma lecture moins fluide que sur la première trilogie. Et même si je ne doute pas que ce tome plaira aux jeunes lecteurs, j'ai été moi, beaucoup moins convaincue. Un peu moins pressée de lire les suivants, je retournerai peut-être au Bout du monde pour continuer dans l'univers du duo de trublions.

[Gwnhwyfer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thumbs it's nose at the 3 biggest fantasy influences currently: "Twilight", "Chronicles of Narnia" and Harry Potter, with a bit of Shakespeare and "His Dark Materials" thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed it, especially in the last two sections, though I think I prefer the first book (which drew heavily from "Lord of the Rings", but with unexpected "character development" - snuggly wuggly's anyone? ;)

See We Love This Book for an article by the authors about the creation of Muddle Earth.

[Rachel]

I should have LOVED this book for a number of reasons. One, its by my favourite authors! Two, it is one of my favourite genres. Three, it has a funny sarcastic character AND FOUR, it includes a 'take off' of Narnia, Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings and even small references to The Sword in the Stone. How could I not love this! Well, I just, didnt. I wanted to! But it just didnt happen. I want to give it another chance though sometime, because I still cant understand how come I ended up not finishing it.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first book. Still quite enjoyable though.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many references to other books in my opinion. Otherwise a nice story!

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

parody of narnia, lotr, and hp

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toujours aussi plaisant à lire, de francs moments de rigolade.

[Susanna Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscing over my childhood with this book. Fantastic and I would recommend for any kid!