Horrid Henry's Sports Day

Horrid Henry Early Reader #18

by Francesca Simon

Horrid Henry hates sports day. Why should he have to run about getting hot and bothered? Any why oh why does he never win? Then Henry has a wonderful, spectacular idea.

32 pages, Audio CD

First published July 1, 2012

About the author

Francesca Simon grew up in California and attended both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. How this prepared her to write children’s books she cannot imagine, but it did give her a thorough grounding in alliteration.

She then threw away a lucrative career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue (US). After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time. One of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers, Francesca has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular HORRID HENRY series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.

Francesca won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2008 at the British Book Awards for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. HORRID HENRY is published in 24 countries and is also an animated CITV series. She lives in London with her husband, son, and Tibetan Spaniel, Shanti.

Reviews

[Pipa Guest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny first reader book.

[Steven Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite the kids love it

[Rick Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sports Day is Horrid Henry's least favorite day of the school year. Not only does he always lose every event, but his brother Perfect Peter always takes home an armful of trophies.

Henry is determined to make this year different, and when the event doesn't get rained out and Henry realizes he's not going to get away with playing sick, he decides to get creative.

Mayhem follows, as well as a surprisingly apt reference to Greek mythology.

The opening of this book leaned pretty heavily on clichés, but it got better once it got going and Henry put his plans into effect.

I enjoyed Tony Ross' illustrations throughout the story. They had nice hint of the classic Edward Gorey look.

I read this with my seven-year-of son, who also seemed to enjoy the second half more than the beginning. He demanded we read the last four chapters in one sitting.

[Neville Ridley-smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh - horrible. Why do people like this? Slightly clever resolution.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrid Henry hates sports day at school - the fact the his brother Perfect Peter always gets awards just irks him even more. Henry swaps out the boiled eggs his brother was taking to school for the the egg and spoon race, with real fresh eggs. He also takes sweets along to the sports day, because it's against the rules to take sweets, and he was going to beat the system. Horrid Henry gets teamed up with Moody Margaret in the three-legged race with disastrous results, so no medal there for Henry. However, his day gets better when Perfect Peter falls in the egg and spoon race and the egg splatters. In fact all the other contestants in the race have the same mishap. Perfect Peter is sent to the principals office as it was him that brought the eggs in the first place. The last race of the day was a grueling cross-country race. Henry cleverly devises a plan that involves dropping sweets all over to distract the other contestants and it works out so well, that Henry wins the race and gets a trophy. Henry's last words to Perfect Peter were, 'It's not winning, it's how you play that counts.' I am sure it wasn't meant that you should cheat though - but I did get a sense of satisfaction because Perfect Peter for once did not come out on top.