I'm Bored! With Horrid Henry & Rude Ralph

Look for Fun in Small Places: Even when you are stuck doing something boring, you can use your imagination to find a way to make it exciting, just like Henry and Ralph turning a trip with the little ones into a mission.

Make a Plan: When the evening feels long and dull, think up a clever idea or a fun project to look forward to, turning a boring time into an adventure.

Change Your Perspective: Sometimes, if you cannot change what you are doing, you can change how you look at it and find a new way to enjoy yourself.

Horrid Henry's Food Art

Hip Horrid, HOORAY!

I have finally completed Horrid Henry's Food Fight, and guess what? It was a real hoot! But it wasn't just Mum that was being mean and horrid to Henry, Peter and Dad were major examples of the same way, until they reached the Virtuous Veggie.

So, Horrid Henry has found this page so his younger brother Peter can tell him how to make his greens into art! You can even make disgusting veggies into shapes of Henry, Peter, Ralph, Graham and other characters from Henry's world.

https://theconfidenteater.com/blog/picky-eating-support/food-art-for-fussy-eaters/

Greasy Actions Have Consequences: A Horrid Book Review

Right, Ashton residents, I recently got up to the third story in Horrid Henry's Food Fight, Revenge Of The Demon Dinner Lady. It is intended as a sequel to 'The Demon Dinner Lady'. I can still hear the glorious first lines of the original Demon Dinner Lady in my head:

"You're not having a packed lunch and that's final!"

"IT'S NOT FAIR! Everyone in my class has a packed lunch!"

"N O spells no. It's too much work and you never eat what I pack for you!"

Anyway, in this story, Mrs Oddbod hires former dinner lady and arch enemy of his horridness, Greasy Greta, to swipe up sweets and sell them to charity. She even has a daughter, named Pasty Patsy, who can eat any sweets she wants under her obese mother's supervision, much to Henry's shock and jealousy.

What makes this story stand out to me is just the same as in Krazy Ketchup. Whereas this story had a picture of Henry recoiling at a poisonous Hydra popping out of a Vegchup bottle, Demon Dinner Lady's Revenge had two: one of Miss Battle Axe as a trapeze artist, the other of Henry's head as a balloon floating away into the sky. Bravo, Tony Ross - I have great sympathy for you there.

My favourite part of the story came at the very end (spoilers, so steer clear on the other side of the road). In order to save everyone from the wrath of the Demon Dinner Lady, Henry sets up a sweet shop near the nature reserve and sells sweets to every single one of his friends at the school - surprisingly, Margaret, Ralph, Bert and Al aren't involved, so it was up to Henry to face the Demon Dinner Lady alone.

And how did he do it? Patsy had no involvement too, so if Henry defeated her and made her explode into bits of bile and gore, this story would have an entirely different ending. But the real ending sees Mrs Oddbod scold Greasy Greta for what she has gone after seeing her stuff her mouth in the Sweet Confiscation Cupboard and fire her. With Henry victorious, Mrs Oddbod appoints him as the lunch monitor, but at a price: to remove all the sweets from each and every one of his gang's lunchboxes.

Then, comes the finest moment in the book. The very last word in Revenge Of The Demon Dinner Lady, which I find the funniest one of all:

"Wah."

Just that one word is bound to leave even the saddest, dullest reader who has had a bad day due to praying last night, or having an alarm set for 6:00AM every morning, in stitches from laughing.

This has to be the funniest story about the consequences of healthy eating, but, there are two things left out which I have to add on: I think while Horrid Henry is selling his sweets, Patsy would confront him and they would engage in a playground brawl while Margaret, Ralph, Al, Bert and the others cheered them on, resulting in his horridness punching Patsy in the guts and causing stomach cancer.

No.2: If Mrs Oddbod had been nicer to Henry, he would finally get his reward of becoming the lunch monitor, and Mrs Oddbod would ban the healthy eating law, stating that all healthy meals should be served with one or two sweets or cakes. But no...

Actions have consequences, right, Henry?

"IT'S NOT FAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR!!"

To be continued:

Horrid Henry Minds His Manners!

Horrid Henry: A Krazy Revue

The first story in Horrid Henry's Food Fight was ABSOLUTELY BANANAS! You know, I can impersonate the voices of Henry, Peter, Mum, Dad and even Ralph perfectly in this story, because I have heard enough of their voices to know how well the stories go - especially Henry's loud, screaming voice, provided by Clifford's Puppy Days voice actress Lizzie Waterworth, who even voiced the little red main character himself for the UK dub.

However, I made Mum's voice sound a little calmer like in the pitch pilot, because of how aggressive she sounded towards Henry in some episodes of the TV series, especially that flinch-worthy wedding episode, where she sounds like she's about to slap her horrid son around the face. I think those Youtube theories about Henry's mum are true - she's the horrid one, not Henry.

Anyway, the story starts on an aggressively furious note, as Henry and his best friend Rude Ralph charge down to dinner to find cauliflower cheese with a tiny amount of Krazy Ketchup, which revolts Ralph so much he doesn't want to eat at Henry's again. Mmmmmm...maybe if Henry's horrid parents understood him more, they could make him fish fingers and chips and add globules of Krazy Ketchup, but noooo, it's just the way Mrs Simon wrote it! *sticks tongue out*

However, Henry is given a chance by his parents to squirt his own ketchup, and immediately the story skips ahead in time to the next evening, where Henry is shocked to find some Vegchup Tomato Ketchup on the table, leading to a well drawn, very creative illustration of Henry recoiling and jumping back in terror at the sight of a poisonous Hydra bursting out of a can of Vegchup. Well done, Mr Tony Ross, you truly mastered creativity in a way no other illustrator can. In fact, I've officially made it my favourite picture in the book. Thank me later.

Anyway, when Henry realises how revolting it tastes, he and the rest of his family fight over the ketchup, causing a terribly smelly and gloppy mess all over. Even Mum and Dad find it revolting, and the story finishes on a positive note as Henry gets away with everything again and has Krazy Ketchup with his dinner at last.

Oh, and dare I mention? Tony Ross drew some ketchup splats all over the page to make it look like this actually happened in the background while Mrs Simon was writing the story. Personally, I like to think that Henry had 'helped' Mrs Simon decorate the page when he wanted to help write it too, as Mrs Simon trusted him more than his mean, horrible parents.

Overall, what a delightfully chaotic start to a fantastically horrid story anthology. Can't wait to read more!

To be continued...

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