Happy Families Collection 10 Books Set - Allan Ahlberg

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Bertie Bun was born to be a baker. His mum is a baker. His dad is a baker. Even his grandparents were bakers. But Bertie has a big problem - he's bored of bread! He wants to be a butcher's boy, or a bus-driver's boy or even a balloonist's boy - and his wishes are going to land him in lots of trouble ... Yes! Unfortunately knives are not out! Because the poor caretaker Irena already washed away the murder weapon, cleaning the traces of blood and fingertips of the murderer. She has good intentions. She literally raised those kids and she truly knows how they suffered from controlling monster a.k.a real psychopath father of the year with a big ugly secret. Families come in all shapes and sizes, big ones, small ones, funny ones and even silly ones. In this first ever audio collection you can discover the story of Mrs Wobble the Waitress, Mr Biff the Boxer, Miss Dirt the Dustman's Daughter and many more of Allan Ahlberg's beloved Happy Families. On the upside? Lapena always keeps her character list short, which I honestly appreciate. Too many thrillers and suspense novels get cluttered with a bunch of people who either don't matter, aren't interesting, or seem to exist only to serve as potential suspects. This tightly-knit family provided just enough options without a bunch of filler.

They gather together for the Easter dinner from hell, where Fred makes an announcement that has all the children leaving hurriedly, angry and upset. Even Irena, the housekeeper who had been the children’s nanny, leaves. Audrey, Fred’s sister, missed the dinner, but she has a complicated history with her brother, and was my favorite character. Her loathing of the Merton children was visceral. Poor Dan, is the mentally and emotionally weakest link of the trio. He reminds me of Successions’ Kendall a lot. His father targeted him from the beginning, abusing mentally and psychically, selling the company he’d worked hard for and left him penniless and unemployed. And his last unfortunate business investment left him high and dry. The father of the year rejects to borrow him money, humiliating him in front of everyone, pleasing to watch him squirming in pain. Being middle child and only boy must be toughest. He’s none of his parents’ favorite, left excluded and has every right to reflect years long boiled anger in different ways. Could he be the killer? Why not?They have three children. All of them were at Easter dinner. Two of them were with their spouses. One was with a random “boyfriend”. The former nanny and current cleaning lady was there too. One guest couldn’t make it. Now everyone in the family is a suspect. They all had a motive. Most of them had an opportunity. Who done it? Happy Families is a series of children's books written by Allan Ahlberg; as the titles indicate, they were inspired by the traditional card game Happy Families. Ahlberg worked with a number of illustrators and the books were published by Puffin Books. The series form a transition for children between picture books and chapter books. [1] It is a popular series, having sold in excess of 2.6 million copies since its launch in 1980. [2] [3]

Allan Ahlberg, a former teacher, postman, plumber's mate and grave digger, is in the super-league of children's writers. He has published over 100 children's books and, with his late wife Janet, created such award winning picture books as EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM and THE JOLLY POSTMAN - both winners of the Kate Greenaway Medal. He has also written prize-winning poetry and fiction and lives in Bath.And their vindictive, extremely irritating auntie Audrey knows their secret, already pissed off to be excluded from half share of the wealth, smelling blood, coming after them. She thinks one of them killed her brother. Is she right? Somewhere around 50% mark we all thought we figured out who the killer was, but I am glad to say we were wrong. I didn't really care about any of them, as they had no real depth or redeeming features to make them come alive. Described as ‘refreshing and original, perfect for fans of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Rosie Project and Gavin & Stacey' Julie Ma has written a novel set in a place you never really read about in fiction, a Chinese take-away. Julie Ma has had various careers since qualifying from Aberyswyth University before she finally ‘took up the helm at the family takeaway.’ This was her inspiration for Happy Families. I've read quite a few Shari Lapena books now, and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. I think I've finally figured out that I adore her mysteries (someone is killed and there are multiple suspects), while I don't like her domestic thrillers (husband or wife could be lying, so are they or aren't they). This mystery definitely goes onto my list of favorites from her.