Uncle Gobb & The Dread Shed

by Michael Rosen

The ridiculously talented Michael Rosen and Neal Layton have paired up to bring young readers the most uproarious comic fiction we've ever published!Please ask if you need a specific version. The data provided here may not be correct. With buying and not asking you are accepting the book as is.

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2015

About the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hysterically funny. Both my husband and I continued to read it after our son had gone to bed because we were unable to resist it. It reminded me a little of Fortunately the Milk (by Neil Gaiman), but has its own madcap charm. I would especially recommend it to reluctant readers in 2nd-5th grades who enjoy funny books.

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was very funny. But it wasn’t my thing, but I’d recommend it to ages around 7.

[J. Ashley-Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've just finished reading this to my eldest son. It's only a short book, but it felt like it would never end. Very likely because there was nothing in it whatsoever to connect with; never have so few words managed to contain so little of value, humour or interest.

I appreciate that I am not the target audience for this shamelessly lower middle grade book, but just because a book is written for and marketed to children doesn't mean it has to be puerile, facile, meaningless twaddle. It reads like a stream of conscious mind-rubbish dump, with arch-silliness, poorly executed surrealism, and self-conscious zaniness liberally applied, as though these sleights of hand could distract from the total absence of story, character and motivation. Further distraction is added by poorly executed plays with form - aside chapters, empty chapters, chapters with pointless or unrelated content. The overall effect was irritating, although I imagine it was meant to be charmingly quirky.

I'm sad that my first review on this site has to be such a hate bomb, but really... Parents, there are books out there by great writers that your middle grade kids will love. You don't have to stoop to forking out for this kind of lowest common denominator garbage.

[Carole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only got three quarters of the way through and gave up. The basic plot line was interesting but the plot was disturbed by constant digressions and jokes to the extent that I truly thought that reading the book was robbing me of my sanity.

[selda]

it is so funny and i love it

[Mehsi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This sounded really brilliant, but sadly I only have an headache and I wish I didn't read this book.

I normally LOVE books with narrators, I squee each time a story breaks the fourth wall. However... in this one the narrator just annoyed me to hell, and the fourth wall breaking just didn't fit and made everything even more confusing.

Not that the book would be much better if Malcolm was the MC and there wasn't any narrator stuff. Oh no. The book would be just as terrible. Malcolm was just horrible, truly horrible. I don't get if he was intentionally being a dumb idiot, or if he was just playing along. But really? Some stuff were just basic human stuff, and he didn't get it. He didn't even know what a cane was, and what it meant. He thought it would be good if it meant he would get better. *rolls eyes* He constantly had to make stupid remarks about everything. I wonder how he even made it to the age he is now considering how dumb he is.

I also wonder why the mom even allowed her brother to live with them. I mean I get that he may need a home for a while, but to constantly keep such an annoying, villainous, dumb guy near you? Sorry, I would have told him to find a home. Especially considering how shitty he is acting towards Malcolm (and well everything).

The book also went for the magical route, and that really made everything even weirder and (which I didn't think was possible) even dumber.

The art is also not really something I liked. The style was just not good looking, though then again it fitted with the weird story.

All in all, not a recommended book. It seemed so fun, but sadly the only thing it brought me was a headache.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. Read this with my 9 year old boy. We liked the illustrations throughout the book, which would appeal to reluctant readers. I found some bits quite humorous, but there was not a lot of story. At the end, my son couldn't tell me what the book was about.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Malcolm struggles with school, his homework and Uncle Gobb who is trying to take over the world. Malcolm has to try and stop him with help from a genie.

Could be used to study comedic writing, myths about genes and script writing; charts and graphs; and education through out history

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a blast reading it.

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

#humour #Junior #awards funny story of a young boy and his problems with an uncle who moves in. Lots of low ball boy type humour of the poop and fart variety.

Winner of the Sheffield Book Awards 2016 Shorter/Longer Novel and Sheffield Book Awards 2016 Overall Best Book.

[Sally Flint · Rating 3 out of 5]

An utterly silly and frivolous read in the style of David Walliam. The plot is whimsical as the narrator observes how worksheets have not changed they are just completed on tablets now. Uncle Gobb is determined to uphold educational standards, but it isn't easy with his nephew Malcom who doesn't give the straightforward answers. For example, he can't answer why is someone wearing his blue hat as how do we know the hat actually belongs to him. There is nothing for it but to destroy Malcolm and his friend by putting them in the Dread Shed with the help of a genie or two thrown in.

The blurb says, there is nothing sensible in this book, and indeed there isn't for children. However, for older readers, and probably to keep the writer himself entertained, the series of observations and asides, made by the narrator, are arguably a deliberate and frequent satirical commentary of the establishment.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young boy annoys his uncle.

This book has a good basic idea but the writing wasn’t tight enough and I felt it was trying to be too clever – but I am probably not the target audience (I'm too old).

Real rating 2.5

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read full of Michael Rosen's irrepressible, silly humour with indicators of how he feels about worksheets and tables very apparent to a grown up reader. Good fun to read and Neal Layton's illustrations are a perfect accompaniment to the amusing prose.

[Matthew Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kept my eight year old son chuckling all the way through.

[Séan Brazier · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That was really funny, it was like a training Mr Gum."

[Emil Sirvio]

I think its a good book :)