Home > Categories > Books > Kids - Middle > The Top Secret Undercover Notes of Buttons McGinty - Book 1 review
Roll up! Roll up! The shining star of madcap mayhem, Rhys Darby, delivers out-of-this-world absurdity with his first hilarious mystery-comedy book for kids!
Loaded with unmistakably quirky and random Rhys humour, 12-year-old Buttons McGinty pens top secret scribbles in a collection of extraordinary notebooks, as he and his friends enter a universe unlike any they've seen before. Buttons has been shipped off to Ranktwerp Island Education Fortress for Gifted Lame Unruly Minors, a.k.a. R.I.E.F.G.L.U.M., a boarding school on a remote island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Antarctica. His parents are missing under strange circumstances and there are bogus baddies and a burly bigfoot on the prowl.
In this mind-blowing, laugh-out-loud mystery-comedy adventure, kids will crack the crazy Morse codes and figure out the clues as they join Buttons on a mission to find his parents, who have been pronounced missing, presumed missing!
Product reviews...
I was super excited when I opened the review box to find this book inside - as not only are my kids going to read it - but we are going to pass it on and then put it into my husband's work library that is available for families to use, as a gifted item! I was excited as Miss 9.5 loves reading, but tends to stick to similar kinds of books, and knowing how funny Rhys Darby is, I hoped that she would also find it funny, and a new author to add to her favourite list.
I did a bit of research on this book and discovered the genre is deemed as mystery-comedy, with a recommended age of 10-14 years. This is perfect for Miss nearly 9, and throughout the book although there were a few words she had to ask the meaning of, she read it all. She said she "couldn't put this book down'', and ''can't wait for the next one''.
Here is her review (she wrote it out and even took it in to show her teachers and friends!)
My Review on The Top Secret Undercover Notes of Buttons McGinty - By Olivia
I think that The Top Secret Undercover Notes of Buttons McGinty is a great book. The book is so unpredictable and so exciting. I liked when there was funny bits like he was trying to spell a word or something happened 3 times in a row and he says like like like again.
I liked the part where Buttons was double crossed by a Triple Agent, it was a bit funny and hard to say because it was much more complicated than a double agent. I liked decoding all the morse code all over the book, it was fun.
I liked how there were so many twists in the book. At the end of the book it was very suspenseful that it made me want to read the next book. I cannot wait until I find Book 2 and find out what happens to Buttons McGinty's parents. I give this book a 10 out of 10. I would definitely read this book again. I think it is my new favourite book and author!
I also read through a book and can totally understand why she liked it so much. Even as an adult I found it entertaining, and it would make a perfect class book. The book itself is quite different to most other books and is done more like a notebook with jokes, pictures, the morse code and more throughout the book.
Rhys Darby has done a fantastic job with this book, and although Olivia does not really know him as a comedian, she guessed that he might be from "his silly and funny writing, Mum" I personally could see Rhys' humour coming through, and almost here him reading the book.
I have included a picture of Olivia doing her "book report" which she took very seriously - I can see this will definitely be a good holiday thing to do too! Looking forward to Book 2 now!
I was really looking forward to reading this book when I saw that I had been one of the lucky ones picked to review, over the past month I had seen a lot of advertisements in regards to the book, which certainly had a whole lot of hype around it. At the time I received this book for review my 10 year old niece happened to be over from Australia for the school holidays, and immediately asked me after reading the inside of the front cover if she would be able to read the book, selling her case by telling me it would give her something to do while she was at her Grandparents during the day, I agreed to Miss 5's disappointment as she to has been learning to read at school and thought that she'd like to read the book herself.
My niece gave the greatest review and she loved it, after reading it myself I can see why that was, the book is full of pure entertainment especially for older children as it is rather funny, my niece told me she laughed the whole way through the book, and that her Dad and Grandma found it rather entertaining to as she would read them the funniest bits out of the book. After doing a bit of research I found that this book is recommended for children approximately 10 - 14 years old, with the genre being a mystery-comedy.
Throughout the book we follow a 12 year old boy named Buttons McGinty who writes almost a diary o his travel log across the Pacific Ocean somewhere between New Zealand and Antarctica, where he has been shipped off to Ranktwerp Island Education Fortress for Gifted Lame Unruly Minors, aka RIEFGLUM, a boarding school, Buttons uses Morse Code throughout his travel log in order to try and find his parents who seem to be missing under strange circumstances, and there are baddies and a bigfoot on the prowl, Button's really wants to solve this case. The book is not like any other book with it being set out like that of a notebook, with scribbles, pictures, jokes and codes and clues throughout it. My niece said although it was written as a notebook with different bits and pieces on the pages that it was still enjoyable and easy to work out what was happening.
Rhys Darby is certainly a very talented man as he "did the words AND the pictures", this would be a book id really recomend to older children who enjoy reading, or perhaps even for those who don't as it seems to have a way of drawing you into the book. With christmas coming up this would make an ideal stocking filler, I know my niece is hoping I can find some other Rhys Darby books for her Christmas gift.
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