"We're getting a football team going," Mr. K said. "This afternoon. On the field. Two o'clock. Be there, all of you," and he waves a hand. "We'll be new men when we've finished."
"That should be interesting." Karen Green yawns. "My Dad always wanted a lad, anyway."
Lily Pickle is writing another book, and this time it's about Mr. K's football team. But all sorts of other things come into too - Mad Mave and her Incredible Hulk boyfriend Hoggy Morgan, Lily's dad, who left home when she was six, and even E. H.'s new hairstyle
Children’s Books wrote
Daily Telegraph wrote... Vibrant dialogue
TES wrote... The style is as bubbly and unpredictable as the characters
Children's Books wrote...Lily, the effervescent heroine of 'The Lily Pickle Band Book' returns with her own exclusive humour which only deserts her at the mention of her dad, Mr. Pickle. He disappeared when she was six and, having reappeared, Lily is thinking of 'divorcing' her mother. Her friends in the neighbourhood are up to various antics Mr. Kendal is hell-bent on raising community spirit with his disastrous football team. Elvis Harris has shaved his head and is wearing mushrooms, and on top of that, Lily is called herself Deirdre.
The end result is a kaleidoscope of colourful characters, individual, exaggerated, lunatic and yet identifiable with kids today. The pace is fast and humorous, and youthful spirits strive above depression through bizarre self-expression. This is a warm and funny book, expertly executed. Brilliant escapism for children of ten to fourteen years.
THE LILY PICKLE BAND BOOK
Mr. Kendall tackled me about the Welly Band last meeting. He goes, "Here, young Lily, was it you told the judges we are called The Welly Band?" And I says "Erin. Erm." And he says "I thought it was."his book is all about the band, and Mr. Kendall who runs it. and E. Harris and the Dead Beats, old Mavis Jarvis who is about twelve feet tall, twelve feet wide and a hundred feet thick in the head, Awful Warning (who is just that), and about six million other kids
The Times Educational Supplement wrote.... We are shot into Gwen Grant's tough, funny, uproarious northern world, with everything going on at such a pace, one can barely catch up. The characters in The Lily Pickle Band Book bang the drum, toss the baton, roll in the mud, scream and yell and take one reeling with them. It is the most true to life in essentials of feeling and action, though I don't suppose most children's bands begin so chaotically and ernd so triumphantly. But, splendidly, they take it for granted that they are going to win.
Tough, funny, uproarious, the most true-to-life in essentials of feeling and action
Shortlisted: GUARDIAN CHILDREN'S FICTION AWARD -1983
THE LILY PICKLE ELEVEN
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GWEN GRANT
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