[review] [TRS] Little Demons

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Little Demons
Posted by Mardou

     Curiously pedantic beyond his almost seven years of age, Tim 
Odlum narrates this tale of inner demons that (literally) seem to 
lurk behind the tonsils.

     An illustrated short story by John Robbins it falls into that 
category of children's literature where adults too can enjoy the 
proceedings as the wry humour throughout it keeps escaping Tim's 
funny bone and is for the reader's benefit.

     It's a very soundly told story. The story opens with the slightly 
'mard arse' Tim (I'm sorry, I can't think of a better adjective!) 
shying away from a large promotional Barney the Dinosaur in the 
street, disgusted that he can see 'another' Barney inside the 
costumed mouth. This inspires Tim's overactive imagination to 
convince himself that he can see people's inner demons in the same 
way. Starting with the school Bully, 'Big Bum', his daily tormentor, 
soon all the kids in class are paying attention to Tim's special 
powers and the story escalates to it's funny and poignant ending.

     Although told in the first person narrative, the reader is given 
room to identify with the exasperated and disinterested adults around 
the narrator. Although the adult level is undeniable it manages to 
stay true to the child's point of view due to a playfulness in the 
language. A matter of some curly-wurgency to the author, evidently.

     The story is coupled with pen and ink illustrations, which 
despite being quite expressive and match the tone of the story, 
aren't of the same quality as the writing.
     Having said that, Little Demons is very good and easily the 
equivalent of lots of currently published, short format kid's books.

For more info see:
http://www.bugpowder.com/trs2/005459.html