A super-competitive chess game, a slushy slurping competition with freezing consequences and acts of kindness when you’re living in the middle of a pandemic.
If you’re looking for wacky, fun and entertaining, delivered in short snippets, Brain Freeze is for you!
The blurb describes this book as a collection of stories featuring characters who are trying to step up and be brave, and that theme really does shine through.
Each tale is about a kid faced with some kind of challenge that requires them to be courageous — real and relatable challenges, even in a bizarre world where your parents are allowed by law to change your name every single day.
Weaved throughout the awesome silliness are also stories that kids will really relate to this year — stories of life in lockdown and remote schooling. I loved these stories in particular, not just because they are reflective of our year, but because Phommavanh has a way of pulling you into his stories, acknowledging the bad while infusing the good (with loads of humour), so you finish feeling seen, heard and part of something.
Each short story in the collection is the perfect size for a cosy read before bed, which also makes this a great book for kids who like to take on bite-sized reading challenges. It provides a variety of stories for kids to try, each fun and entertaining, but each different with lots of different characters (both girls and boys).
Fun, entertaining and kid focused, Brain Freeze is for fans of relatable stories to laugh out loud at.
Title: Brain Freeze
Author: Oliver Phommavanh
Publisher: Puffin, $14.99
Publication Date: 1 September 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760897147
For ages: 10+
Type: Junior Fiction, Middle Fiction