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Francesca Simon

Author of Horrid Henry

308 Works 9,500 Members 90 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Series

Works by Francesca Simon

Horrid Henry (1994) 538 copies
Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb (1997) 342 copies
Horrid Henry's Underpants (2003) 306 copies
Horrid Henry's Nits (1997) 299 copies
Horrid Henry Meets the Queen (2004) 250 copies
Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick (1998) 249 copies
Where are You? (1998) 244 copies
Horrid Henry's Revenge (1800) 211 copies
Horrid Henry's Haunted House (1999) 208 copies
Horrid Henry Robs the Bank (2008) 171 copies
Horrid Henry's Joke Book (2004) 164 copies
Horrid Henry Wakes the Dead (2009) 161 copies
Horrid Henry Rocks (2010) 133 copies
Spider School (1995) 90 copies
The Monstrous Child (2016) 88 copies
Don't Cook Cinderella (1996) 86 copies
A Handful of Horrid Henry (2000) 75 copies
A Helping of Horrid Henry (1948) 75 copies
Hello, Moon! (2013) 72 copies
The Sleeping Army (2011) 63 copies
Horrid Henry's Double Dare (2009) 60 copies
Horrid Henry's Nightmare (1721) 59 copies
Horrid Henry's Wicked Ways (1973) 55 copies
Horrid Henry's Evil Enemies (2006) 41 copies
Helping Hercules (1999) 39 copies
Horrid Henry's Bedtime (2005) 24 copies
Hack and Whack (2017) 22 copies
Calling All Toddlers (1998) 21 copies
Hugo and the Bully Frogs (1999) 19 copies
Toddler Time (2000) 18 copies
Horrid Henry's Annual 2010 (2009) 16 copies
Horrid Henry's Annual 2008 (2007) 15 copies
Horrid Henry's Annual 2012 (2011) 14 copies
Miaow Miaow Bow Wow (2000) 14 copies
Horrid Henry's Dreadful Deeds (2000) — Author — 13 copies
Horrid Henry's Annual 2013 (1840) 12 copies
Horrid Henry's Annual 2009 (2008) 11 copies
Three Cheers for Ostrich! (1991) 11 copies
Horrid Henry Annual 2015 (2014) 9 copies
Whoops-a-Daisy! (1993) 8 copies
Horrid Henry's Annual 2011 (2010) — Author — 8 copies
Papa Forgot (1993) 8 copies
Horrid Henry Annual 2014 (2013) 7 copies
Yum Yum (Early Reader) (2012) 6 copies
Two Terrible Vikings (2021) 6 copies
When the Moon Comes Out (1997) 5 copies
Don't wake the baby! (1998) 5 copies
Space (Horrid Henry) (2015) 4 copies
Horrid Henry Summer Fun (2017) 4 copies
The Goat Café (2019) 3 copies
Spooky spectacular (2019) 2 copies
Rosszcsont Peti (2012) 2 copies
הנרי הנורא (2010) 1 copy
Horrid Henry's Hike (2018) 1 copy
Kacak Ordek Yavrusu (2012) 1 copy
Rosie's Swing (1994) 1 copy
Grozni Grga (2010) 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

I really don't know how I feel about this one or if I care enough to really grapple with my feelings, which is odd because I was absolutely having a ball for a while there. But it's just sorta not a lot beyond the surface.

The story follows Hel, the half-dead god Norse goddess of death, from birth to Ragnarok, casting her as snarky, 'boy crazy', emo, girlboss teen with an acerbic attitude.

At first I was really enjoying the similarish tone to Harrow from Tamsyn Muir's Locket Tomb series, especially with the wonderful performance of Eleanor Tomlinson that has a similar timbre to Moira Quirk's glorious narration for Muir's books, but it's kind of left no actual impression on me and I had to kinda force myself to get though it. I thought Circe by Madeline Miller was great and I would most compare it to that with less depth, story arc, and the fact Circe seemed to be doing something new with the story from a historical/ mythological fantasy perspective.

I suppose the question I'm left with is, what was the point? The historical/ mythological fiction giving a character a new first person, protagonist perspective is generally used to explored a character in greater depth, especially one done dirty by events and their screen time, interpret them in a new way, often through a feminist lens, or using them much like science fiction as a medium to explore and/ or interrogate a contemporary issue. I don't really see this doing any of those beyond showing that Hel had a tough life. Unfortunately, this book doesn't really give her much depth or narrative, and, with the handling of her feelings for Balder and reaction to her yassification by the mortal Freya, it doesn't seem like a feminist reading.

I think the real shame is that this tone and prose really could have been something, but it ultimately comes off as running Hel's story through an 'AI' filter. That's really unfair and I don't mean to be so harsh on Simon, I simply mean that this is what if Hel was an emo teen girlboss? without actually exploring what that means.

The narration really is something else and I think I would have struggled so much more without it, but this is also the first audiobook I've upped the playback speed because I just wanted to finish it sooner.
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Flagged
RatGrrrl | 12 other reviews | Dec 20, 2023 |
Neat little book with a delightful story about Henry, a child many students can relate to and lots of activities to keep them happily involved. If they enjoy this, they’ll enjoy many other books about Henry.
 
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Gmomaj | 5 other reviews | Mar 29, 2023 |
 
Flagged
cathgrey1 | Dec 24, 2022 |

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Associated Authors

Tony Ross Illustrator
David Melling Illustrator
Sonia Holleyman Illustrator
Siân Lewis Translator
Elin Meek Translator
Miguel Azaola Translator

Statistics

Works
308
Members
9,500
Popularity
#2,527
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
90
ISBNs
1,162
Languages
20
Favorited
1

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