The Girl, the Penguin, the Home-schooling and the Gin

by Guy Adams, W.R. Foster

'It's alright,' said the Penguin, in exactly the sort of way that Penguins don't.
'This is the only book you'll ever need to find complete happiness.'

Because it's been a bit of a trying time, hasn't it? You now know that your five-year old is better at maths than you. And English. And at not crying during work. And the only way to get through it with a smile has been to buy all the booze and try to remember how to do 'going out'.

But don't worry, here to paper over all the cracks is a touching book, full of tender animal friends, pretty pictures and not too many words. A book for our times - to remind us of the precious joys of having all the family together, non-stop, twenty four hours a day.

Owning it will make you happy. Giving it to other people will make you seem kind.

Reading it will remind you that you're nearly out of gin.

Genres: Poetry, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Humor

112 pages, Hardcover

Published October 28, 2021

Reviews

[Kärt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun quick read, made me chuckle a good few times ☺️ and surprisingly uplifting too!

[Nicola Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a running internal monologue of confusion, much like the lockdown, home-schooling and fronted adverbial.

[Clayre Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick and easy book to read, containing some dark humour and amusing sketches.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as The woman the mink the cod and the donkey, which is an actual parody straight from The boy the mole the fox and the horse.
But it has its own style of being filled with dark adult humor 😂

[Cw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although cute and humorous was expecting it to be more emotional instead of funny. A nice read nonetheless and lovely drawings

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jesus fucking Christ

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know how well this book will age as seemed to encapsulate a very specific time period of Boris Johnson during COVID. It is of course a parody of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which I enjoyed and have looked at other parodies of.
The homeschooling refers to school via zoom, not what I was expecting, but it made sense. I was kinda confused about the parents, they seemed homeless but not? Not sure, but I love penguins and laughed at the dog on wheels.

[Darren Preece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing and required reading for all

[Razan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great parody on ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox & The Horse’ & ‘Big Panda & Tiny Dragon’. Light fun & tongue-in-cheek humour for a mature audience 🚫

[Anna Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

needed something I could finish in a day after cc and this was a fun parody of the boy, the fox, the mole and the horse. sometimes life is hard but ur all doing great bc you’re doing ur best <3

[Book_Worm_Jim.83 · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I am in recovery and did not know the content of this book when I purchased it! This is why you don’t judge a book by its cover. I’m safe as I’m a few years in but I would not give this to someone fresh out of rehab to read. Having said that it is funny and made me laugh on more than one occasion.

I’ll look at reading more from this author as I really enjoyed this book. It’s a short read at just 112 pages and a blank page is included for free.

[Inês · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/10 estrelas
I found this book to be an extremely fun idea. I never got to read the original book but making it a parody was pretty clever and I think, knowing my taste in things, I would appreciate this more. I love how the covers are so similar and you can literally mistake it with the original. The content was very up-to-date and extremely relatable. Nevertheless, there were parts where I didn't really understand what was being said, maybe it as something to do with the original book, I'm not sure.

[Cara Patel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like a cash grab.

[Meredith]

0 stars. Waste of time.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sólo me han hecho gracia dos chistes en todo el libro, supongo que porque es un humor inglés muy cultural (me ha llamado especialmente la atención que hay críticas a la reacción de la población inglesa en torno a las medidas de Boris Johnson durante el confinamiento, pero CLARO yo no sé ni una de esas medidas así que ??). También, por lo que he leído en otras reseñas, es una parodia directa de un libro muy famoso de autoayuda… imagino que no te puede hacer tanta gracia si no has leído el original.

Me ha dado mucha pena no entenderlo y tener que darle esta nota, ya que fue el primer libro que compré durante el tiempo que vivi en Dublín y le tengo un cariño especial por eso, pero es lo que hay :(

[Alicia Lovely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I started the year off strong here didn’t I?
I feel like I’ve just completely wasted 15 minutes of my life reading this.
Yes I know it’s a quick read and I know it’s meant to be a parody but I really didn’t see the point.
Did it make me laugh? Maybe, once… sort of.
“Everything will be ok in the end and if it’s not then it’s then end so it doesn’t matter,” Was definitely the best line in the book but it’s definitely something I’ll forget by tomorrow & never pick up again.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love that there is more than one well-meant parodiert of "The boy, the fox, the horse and the mole" by now. I loved the introduction of this one, the drawings and several jokes and phrases. However, I did not expect it to address the COVID pandamic that strongly which confused me at first and I needed a bit to put it into context. In this regard there were also one or two drawings I am not sure what to think of but overall it was a nice read.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting parody of the highly successful Boy, Fox, Horse, Mole etc ..

Although I did laugh out loud a couple of times, it seems to me that it's run it's race .. set during the lockdown in 2020, the jokes etc are now 2 years old ..

Illustrations are very good - worth the 30 minute read ..

[Emma Lambe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girl, the Penguin, the Home-Schooling and the Gin, which just judging by the cover can see it’s a parody of that genre of book. Funnier than I thought it would be, this was a quick, fun read. Made me laugh a couple of times!

The Girl, the Penguin, the Home-schooling and the Gin

7.5 out 10

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was written by the same author as the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse so I had really high hopes but it wasn’t.
It had a couple sentences that I liked but other than that it wasn’t anything great tbh.
It’s still 4 stars thought because it took like 5 mins to read so I can’t really complain.

[Reagan Ruisseau · Rating 4 out of 5]

as far as parody’s go, this is actually a really good one - it’s clever, it’s witty, it’s a great one sitting read - I actually read it in 10 minutes at Asda without purchasing it - so I do not know it’s cost value - but did it make me laugh out loud literally? yes, yes it did

[Abi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny, good jokes
A couole of my favourite lines:
"I'd rather eat vegan fish sticks than be seen within six few of 'em."
"Everything will be alright in the end, and if it's not alright then it's the end so who cares?"

[Laura Flowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received as a lovely present & really enjoyed it, made me laugh out loud!

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the illustrations, good little read and a keepsake for getting through covid

[Franca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and rather quick read, surprisingly uplifting and made me smile!

[Evelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

it’s so short read it in 10 minutes lol, i bought it awhile ago without actually knowing what it was i finally sat down and read it today and i’m happy i did :) funny asf, good ass illustrations

[Souly Peerage · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun to read but some passages were a little confusing. I will read it again. I really like the Penguin

[Rachel-Morgan Lanouette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute parody. I truly prefer this to the original.

[Gaynor Mckinnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay and made me laugh a few times

[Nicki Caulkett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny little book. Good for a 15min read to switch off a bit 👍