Pacy and packed with perfectly pitched puerile humour that will make you snort and that the kids will love. Vi Spy is a book on a mission, to get kids to read without them thinking it is a chore.
From the first sentence, the reader is dunked headfirst into Vi’s world of super spies and uber-villains. This book is a family story with a twist and is so inventive and lots of fun. It will keep you guessing and giggling with the turn of every page.
In a world where there are many humorous books written for young readers that don’t make much of an impact, because they lack depth, a varied vocabulary, content (so many of them are just lists), good characterisation and a protagonist that you can relate to, Vi Spy is a roundhouse kick of the butt followed by a karate chop to the windpipe. It deftly deals with the difficulty of having divorced parents, whilst totally staying focused on being an adventure. A trademark of Maz’s books is seamlessly weaving tough emotional realities through an utterly bonkers plot, surprising you with moments of overwhelming emotion and then making you laugh a sentence later.
Maz Evans is one of those authors who suffer from adults being the gatekeepers to things like reviews and prizes, as her books are one hundred percent written for children. This is why children LOVE her books and they are massive bestsellers despite some adults being sniffy about her rapid-fire quips and hilarious plots. Her Who Let the God’s Out Series is a massive hit in spite of these gatekeepers and Vi Spy will carry on this tradition of being a firm favourite amongst children, although I think it’s about time the grown-ups caught up.
That dastardly Maz Evans tried to blow up my cat with her book package!
FULL DISCLOSURE: Maz and I have known each other for a long time and are arch-enemies. My husband doesn’t know that I know, but I do know, that he is a Maz Mole, a super spy for Her Maz-nasty and part of a secret society of people she has hypnotised with her terrifying charm in an attempt to take over the book world. I would really like to tell you Vi Spy is terrible, and if one sentence of it was poor, I would quote it and dance around it singing ‘ner ner na ner ner’ and blowing raspberries. However, I am disappointed to have to admit that I have now read every sentence of the book, and it’s annoyingly good. It will be another slam dunk from Mrs Funny-pants Evans.