I know this book is for people in primary school, but Norm really annoyed me.
The background to my reading a book intended for such people was when I took the book out of my local library, because it was free, and I thought I might as well. If you go back to the first statement, you can see what the chief of the review will be about (and by the way, I haven't read any of these books before).
Norm wakes up with his dog on his face. His brother tells him to come down, because his parents want to speak to him. Cut to Norm lamenting on the woes of having siblings and reminiscing about the days of being an only child, and getting a shed-load of attention. His parents say they're going to a loathable shop, but he must stay in to wait on a parcel. They leave. He makes a deal with annoying neighbour Chelsea to have her wait on the parcel. Now time to do the awesome thing that is biking with best friend Mikey. Stupid name. Sorry. Crashes his bike. Finds Mikey isn't in and just bought a new bike for no good reason. Strikes off friendship for petty reason. Finds the parcel is an okay phone for him. Gets his grandfather to mend the bike. All is well.
It didn't seen worthwhile to go over this in detail.
Norm really annoyed me. He goes over stupid things for no good reason, and is sure that his brothers are a nuisance. Well, judging from the structure of his lamentations, HE'S LUCKY TO HAVE THEM! If not, he'd be used to getting served on hand and foot, and people would find him insufferable. The consequences would be far greater. Also, why does he even need a phone? He has an iPod. And if he's smart enough to use mild profanity (see below), then why does he think that his old phone was from the Age of the Dinosaurs?
Language - this is for primary school-children, and they can wait to use mild profanity like 'Gordon-Flipping-Bennet.' That's very annoying.
Very low standards of a World Book Day book.