Hack and Whack

by Francesca Simon, Charlotte Cotterill (Illustrator)

Overview

Hack and Whack – two angelic looking Viking toddler twins – are on the attack! As they go marauding around their village, upsetting the apple carts, little do they know there is a force far more powerful than they: their mom! Can they continut their tirade, or will they face the most dreaded punishment of all..... being plunged into a cold bath!! Gloriously funny, slapstick, fast paced action from the queen of funny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571328710
Publisher:	Faber & Faber Children's
Publication date:	11/14/2017
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 5 Years

About the Author

Francesca Simon is universally known for the staggeringly popular Horrid Henry series. These books and CDs have sold over 20 million copies in the UK alone and are published in 27 countries. She lives in North London with her family.

Editorial Reviews

10/09/2017
When confronted with the prospect of bedtime, two redheaded Viking siblings go on a rampage through their village, instead. “We’re Hack and Whack on the attack,” chant the siblings in what becomes the book’s chorus, repeated as they tear through a dining hall, topple an (occupied) outhouse, send barrels and logs tumbling, and recruit reinforcements. Simon (the Horrid Henry series) limits her rhyming text to bursts of shouting and noisy sound effects (“Crash! Smash! Splat! Crack! We’re Hack and Whack on the attack!”), giving newcomer Cotterill room to run wild, just like the two young Vikings. Her scratchy, crayonlike black line is ideally suited to the book’s atmosphere of mounting chaos as pigs, chickens, feathers, and food go flying in the children’s wake; loose, hand-lettered text brings additional freewheeling energy (and sometimes appears in speech balloons that feature pointy Viking horns). There is the occasional oddity—Hack and Whack’s formidable mother, in hot pursuit of her children throughout, has a head that looks far too small for her towering body—but it hardly detracts from the book’s unbridled mischief and fun. Up to age 5. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

When confronted with the prospect of bedtime, two redheaded Viking siblings go on a rampage through their village, instead. “We’re Hack and Whack on the attack,” chant the siblings in what becomes the book’s chorus, repeated as they tear through a dining hall, topple an (occupied) outhouse, send barrels and logs tumbling, and recruit reinforcements. Simon (the Horrid Henry series) limits her rhyming text to bursts of shouting and noisy sound effects (“Crash! Smash! Splat! Crack! We’re Hack and Whack on the attack!”), giving newcomer Cotterill room to run wild, just like the two young Vikings. Her scratchy, crayonlike black line is ideally suited to the book’s atmosphere of mounting chaos as pigs, chickens, feathers, and food go flying in the children’s wake; loose, hand-lettered text brings additional freewheeling energy (and sometimes appears in speech balloons that feature pointy Viking horns). There is the occasional oddity— Hack and Whack’s formidable mother, in hot pursuit of her children throughout, has a head that looks far too small for her towering body—but it hardly detracts from the book’s unbridled mischief and fun." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2017-10-01
Even Vikings need to sleep.Not that rumbustious sibs Hack and Whack seem to believe that. When their mother calls them to bed, the children, appropriately hacking and whacking at each other with wooden ax and sword, resist energetically. "NOOOOOOOOOOO! We are HACK and WHACK on the attack!" is their refrain. The pint-sized warriors proceed to lay waste to their village, wreaking chaos on page after page as hapless Viking adults in horned helmets and breastplates look on. Both dialogue (in horned speech balloons) and sound effects emphasize the sound "ack": "THWACK THWACK / CLICKETY… / CLACK" accompany visuals in which Hack and Whack tip over an occupied (and, judging by the sign on its door, wheelchair-accessible) outhouse. The kids roust all their friends for a climactic melee, after which their mom "sneaks" up on them, "smacks" them each on the head (the blow is not illustrated, but the children are depicted in cartoon-reeling mode, with stars and weaponry circling above their dazed heads), and bathes them before tucking them into their little longship-shaped beds. The story is slapstick violence start to finish, Cotterill's busy spreads filled with Hack and Whack's gleeful mayhem. All the Vikings are white, and their uniformly unkempt hair bristles in red, blond, and brown. Hack sports pigtails and a leather dress, while Whack wears short hair and a jerkin; evidently Viking violence is not gender-specific.Exhausting. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews