Billy and the Giant Adventure

by Jamie Oliver, Mónica Armiño (Illustrator)

Overview

One pinch of adventure, a dash of friendship, a sprinkle of mystery and a HUGE spoonful of magic . . . Jamie Oliver, bestselling author and internationally renowned chef, delivers the perfect recipe for a page-turning children's fiction debut!

Billy and his friends know that Waterfall Woods is out of bounds; strange things are rumored to have happened there and no one in their village has ventured past its walls for decades . . . But when they discover a secret way in, Billy and his best friends, Anna, Jimmy and Andy, can't resist the temptation to explore! Only to quickly discover that the woods are brimming with magic and inhabited by all sorts of unusual creatures, including a whole community of sprites who need the children's help! With magical battles, a long-lost mythical city, fantastical flying machines, epic feasts and one GIANT rescue — not to mention some mouth-watering recipes at the back — get ready for an adventure you'll never forget!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774884140
Publisher:	Tundra Book Group
Publication date:	11/14/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	188,541
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

JAMIE OLIVER is a global phenomenon in food and campaigning. He has sold nearly 50 million books worldwide, is the top-selling non-fiction author in UK history and has achieved an estimated global TV audience reach of 67 million across 182 territories. Jamie started cooking at his parents' pub, The Cricketers, in Clavering, Essex, at the age of eight. After leaving school, he began a career as a chef that took him to the River Café, where he was famously spotted by a television production company and The Naked Chef was born. Jamie now lives in Essex with his wife Jools and their five children.

M"NICA ARMI—O is a Spanish freelance illustrator. She graduated in Fine Arts and is based in Madrid, with an extensive knowledge of both digital and traditional techniques. She is able to draw in many different styles and she loves to experiment with light, color and textures. She has always been interested in focusing her career on children's illustration and cartoons, and she has published several books with various publishers and agencies in Europe and the US. She also works in the animation industry as a character designer, background artist and color and texture artist for feature films and pre-school TV series, like the award-winning Puffin Rock (Cartoon Saloon/Dog Ears/Penguin books) and the popular Spanish cartoon Pocoyo (Zinkia Entertainment).

Hometown:

London, England

Date of Birth:

May 27, 1975

Place of Birth:

Essex, England

Editorial Reviews

10/02/2023

Celebrity chef Oliver combines goofy humor and wilderness whimsy with serious real-world issues to craft a layered story-within-a-story, framed as a bedtime tale that a father recounts to his two children. Despite warnings from the local adults that no good will come to those who wander into the surrounding wilds, tween Billy and his compatriots Andy, Anna, and Jimmy venture into enchanted Waterfall Woods. After befriending members of a Sprite civilization, the quartet learn that the Rhythm—or the natural balance of the forest—is off-kilter. At the Sprites’ urging, the youths investigate a faceless industrial poultry farm that’s spewing waste into the waterways. As Billy and company navigate the perils of the verdant woods, they use the lessons learned in the wilderness to counter challenges back home, such as bullying and managing learning disabilities, grounding the fantastical adventure and pleasantly decelerating the quicksilver plot. Descriptive writing renders plenty of delicious food scenes throughout, portrayed via textured pencil illustrations by Armiño (A Wolf Called Wander). Recipes conclude. Most human characters appear white; Jimmy reads as Black. Ages 8–12. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-07-31
The popular chef invites readers on a food-filled quest to save both our planet and a magic forest.

Waking to a savory bacon sandwich served by his publican mother, 9 ½-year-old Billy throws off the sheets and rises to join his best friends on a venture into mysterious Waterfall Woods. Intrepid Anna grew up in foster care before being adopted; Andy has earned his nickname, the Fart Blaster; and avid naturalist Jimmy, who moved to the village from London, is Black in a human cast that otherwise appears white. While stopping to share yummy smoked salmon and other snacks, the kids meet Basil the Sprite and go on to a quick series of exploits, including exposing an illegal operation that is polluting the local river while turning factory-farmed turkeys into pink slime nuggets. Billy finds a way to approach more common challenges too, such as coping with his reading and attention difficulties at school. Along with plenty of spot art and some snigger-inducing scenes, such as one showing Anna lighting up one of Andy’s humungous blasts, Armiño strews lively, full-page views of the pals grabbing a bite, hanging out in a spacious treehouse, or marveling at a flock of Sprites. Oliver dangles several open threads to spice up interest in future episodes, leaves his Everylad chowing down on a luscious ploughman’s lunch, and tempts further kitchen exploits with a trio of recipes.

Dishes up a tasty round of youthful derring-do with several meaty topics on the side. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

"Celebrity chef Oliver combines goofy humor and wilderness whimsy with serious real-world issues to craft a layered story-within-a-story, framed as a bedtime tale that a father recounts to his two children." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher