Review Detail

Going to a new school can be a terrifying experience. And it doesn’t help that Toby’s siblings have managed to fit into their schools quite snugly, while he has to go to one that apparently smells of ‘ogre armpits’.
That one phrase there made me laugh out loud. And at the same time, it struck a deep chord with me. Having been a child who had to shift schools every three or four years (I have my dad’s job to thank for that), I remember the dread and the dismay that used to pool uncomfortably in my stomach every time I walked in through a new set of gates. But Rebecca Elliott captures that experience in a beautiful melange of words and pictures.
Toby takes refuge in his imagination. He wanders through space with an alien, sails the seven seas with a pirate and goes on dinosaur hunts with an expert, and at the end finds that the adventures may have been make-believe but not the friends he met on the way.
MY STINKY NEW SCHOOL is whimsical, uplifting and heart-warming. Most importantly, it addresses an issue that a lot of kids will relate to. The illustrations are just lovely and Rebecca’s writing style is lucid and charming.