Flanimals

Flanimals

by Ricky Gervais

"I read this book just days before my final Flanimal exam and passed with flying colours. Thank you, Mr Gervais". (Alison Page, University of Dorking). "It sent my child mental. You haven't heard the last of this". (Rebecca Fellows, Richmond, Surrey). Loads of Flanimals were hurt in the making of this book. Meet the Plamglotis who, born without feet, swallows its hands to walk on looking for food. Unfortunately, when it finds food it can't eat because its mouth is already full. The Underblenge has a snerbulent splench sucker that captures prey by sticking to their face and suffocating them, as its suckers are impossible to prize off. Unfortunately it can't catch anything as it can't move from the rock it was born on. The Grundit, who staggers around half-witted and grumpy causing trouble. Its favourite hobby is to use ...the Puddloflaj as a mode of transport. (The Baby Puddloflaj, incidentally, can be used as a water bomb). There are 35 characters to get to know. Each one is introduced in stunning full-colour with the help of Rob Steen's remarkable, original and modern artwork which was created using a combination of traditional media and computer techniques.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Picture Books, Humor, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Art

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and broadcaster.

Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant. Besides writing and directing the shows, Gervais played the lead roles of David Brent in The Office and Andy Millman in Extras. Gervais has starred in a number of Hollywood films, assuming leading roles in Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. Gervais has performed on three sell-out stand-up comedy tours, written the best-selling Flanimals book series and starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the most downloaded podcast prior to March 2009, The Ricky Gervais Show.

He has accumulated a multitude of awards and honours, including seven BAFTA Awards, four British Comedy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards and the 2006 Rose d'Or, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In 2010 he was voted third greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Channel 4, behind Richard Pryor and Billy Connolly. In 2010, he was named on the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.

Reviews

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can’t believe I forgot to add this way back when. Remember it fondly, absolutely ridiculous!

[melydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre collection of monsters who are ugly, gross, and pretty much useless. I'm sure this is fun to read aloud to a young child who would enjoy such things, but as a stuffy old adult I just sort of breezed through it and felt a little confused.

[Mikana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting short listen, for those that have a love of made up creatures. The story "more flanimals" was enjoyable and fantastic.

[Rhys Causon · Rating 4 out of 5]

For what it is, it’s enjoyable... don’t know why I’ve kept it on my shelf since childhood though.

[Toby Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The real Flanimal…is man.

[Isobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book to engage children with writing. I love the mysterious and adventurous beasts Ricky has created.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book from my childhood. So peculiar. Some of the words used for the flanimal’s names is wild and I’m surprised it was okayed for a children’s book. 😭

The illustrations are one of the standout features of this book. I forgot this book is very light on words!

[Bryanna Rorie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, If the point is to explore feelings of disgust and being uncomfortable then this was the book for you. One of the kids in second grade class were reading it and I decided to read it with him. He loved it. I kept getting disgusted- maybe it’s because I don’t like guts and blowing up stuff, but this was like the equivalent of watching kids pick their noses and eating the boogers which is what these characters look and act like. They are basically different monster type creatures. Seems like a great book for those boys that like icky type things that are supposed to be funny. Great for making kids laugh- don’t really know what about but maybe because I’m an adult I don’t see their vision.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blimple Sprent, Clunge Ambler, Glonk and Wobboid Mump are just some of the weird and wonderful creatures from the mind of Ricky Gervais.

This is a fantastic and funny book for all ages. Young children will love the pictures (illustrated by Rob Steen) adults will laugh at the descriptions of the seemingly useless animals and their behaviour's and if you're like me you will just laugh at the funny names of the various Flanimals.

This is not a story book more of a non-fact encyclopedia, but will get a child's imagination running wild in Literacy and Art lessons.

I would recommend this book to everyone and it will have you chuckling from the first page.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truthfully, it kind of felt like I was listening to a group’s inside jokes. Like there were probably people who got every joke and were laughing, but I just didn’t have the context. I don’t even think I had a favourite - and I don’t think that time will make a difference.

[Myra · Rating 3 out of 5]

2019 Popsugar - Children's edition - book recommended by a celebrity you admire

Cute, but not as amusing as I had hoped. Although there definitely are some subtle things in there just for the grown-ups.

[Jacqueline Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listagem muito bem humorada de monstros, que divertem mais que assustam 😏

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned: Daft imagination running wild!

[Dirk Dursty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing but seems a bit on the mean-spirited side for a goofy kids' book.

[Skylar Waldron]

One of my favorite books as a kid

[Len · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Halley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect before I started reading it, and now that I've finished, I'm still unsure.

[Jon Silvester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny looks great highly recommend it 👍😃🤣🤣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🤣

[Olwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only good Ricky Gervais output and even then it's a bit gross for my liking

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

who doesn't love flanimals? it's so silly and fun.

[Joey The Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio book made me defo want to read the book, absolute hilarious master piece and defo a good one for kids.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and silly; ideal for phonics perhaps? No plotline which is a shame. Perhaps Ss create their own stories using flanimals?

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my son was first discovering his love of monsters, comedian and television writer Ricky Gervais was starting a new series of monster books with Flanimals. Sean and I have only recently discovered the series thanks to the public library picking up the first two books in the series.

Flanimals introduces a bunch of different unusual monster animals. Some are scary. Some are cute. Some start out cute and grow to be scary. There's a food chain too.

Each flanimal has a funny comment or two about what they do or where their name comes from. A lot of those jokes are still going over my son's head. He looks at me strange when I start snickering (I read over his shoulder). Nonetheless, there's nothing too racy with the humor. It's pretty sophomoric.

Apparently Gervais is now in the process of adapting the books into a film.

[Robert Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are three of these Flanimal books, and I got all three from a table top sale for a pound - absolute bargain.

I read the first one, this one, out loud to my wife whilst showing her the pictures - don't worry, she can read herself, it was just one of those silly things - and contrary to my expectations (her sense of humour is very different to mine) she totally enjoyed it. She laughed throughout the book with her eyes wide like a little kid's every time I turned the page to reveal a new marvel.

Me? I guess I could take it or leave it to be honest. There seems to be some dispute as to whether these books should be filed under humour or children, and if I had it my way, it would be the latter.

Good buy for 33p each, and worth more for the look in my wife's face, but I would have felt cheated had I paid more.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that seems like it will be funny. Then you start reading it and it is just strange. But as you keep going, the continued ridiculousness of it all grows on you. By the end I was laughing and thinking maybe I'll look for more of these. Even though, according to the front flap, "Loads of Flanimals were hurt during the making of this book." Fun book for older elementary and boys especially.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much a narrative in this book as it mostly represents a single monster on each page accompanied by the writer's details of said monster, which range from 2 sentences to a paragraph. The text has Gervais voice and it reads like his guide to Pokemon. You can almost hear Gervais' voice saying the words out loud and describing things in his British accent as tasting "Brilliant."

[João Moura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ricky Gervais é o idiota da série The Office. É um gajo com ideias (daí ser idiota). Flanimals é um livro sobre animais asquerosos imaginados por Gervais, onde não faltam os nomes das espécies imaginárias em latim e um teste de avaliação de conhecimentos no final do livro. É o livro sem pés nem cabeça que se esperava de Gervais. A comprar naquelas promoções de 1 euro no hipermercado.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this book to be really bizarre. My 5 year old son loves it, however. Some of the creatures are a little gross and vicious, some are just odd. If you have a child who is into monsters and fantasy creatures, they'd probably like this, although I wouldn't recommend it for children under 5.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I picked this book up because I saw it was written by Ricky Gervais. I wouldn't say that it absolutely hilarious but it is pretty funny. Ricky's wit is evident. My son seems to like it too and likes saying the names of all the flanimals which is reason enough to read it.

[Tess North · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever book written by a clever author. About unique monsters and how they behave. This book is silly, but probably holds the attention of a 7-8yr old better then a younger reader. Fun illustrations and great play on words and the typical sense of a monster!