The Kooky Kids’ Club by Robbie Yates

Title: The Kooky Kids’ Club

Author: Robbie Yates

Genre: Children’s Fiction

Maxine is smart, quirky, and a bit of a misfit. One day, she receives a mysterious invitation to a meeting of the “Kooky Kids’ Club”

Things are looking bright. It’s nice to finally have a real group of friends. Then Maxine’s teacher disappears.

Maxine doesn’t know what happened to her beloved teacher, or how she can help. But if anybody has the smarts to help Miss Thompson, it’s Maxine and the Kooky Kids’ Club…

This quirky chapter book is for the best kind of kids—the ones who are a little bit kooky!

Where do I start? I love Robbie’s stories. They are quirky, hilarious and so very relatable! Take Maxine for instance; I was so like her while in school. Forget school, I am still a Kooky Kid! Not by age perhaps, but by heart, yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! Robbie – did you actually write this character based on me?

Maxine reminded me of … me! In school, I was always the ‘odd-one-out’. Except for being a teacher’s pet ( I did not dimpled chin or blue eyes but curly hair – yes), I do not remember playing with my classmates or spending time doing something naughty, like how kids usually do in school. Unlike Maxine, I had no Aunt Izzie by my side. My parents used to work (sometimes even on weekends) and I spent almost all of my vacations alone at home, either watching TV or reading books or doing some kind of art and craft. Reading this book brought back memories of my childhood.

She chewed the end of her pencil, wondering what zebras would look like if they had spots instead of stripes.

Rekha: They would look like white leopards I guess. Something similar to a snow leopard? Just bigger than leopards with a donkey-like face?

She spent her free time sketching and reading comics, so she knew almost nothing about the latest pop stars and vlogging sensations.

This Kooky kid (who is no longer a kid) still doesn’t know anything about pop stars or vlogs!

“I don’t think I had any proper friends until high school.”

“Did it bother you?”

“Not really, but I was in my own world a lot of the time.”

I wish I had a Kooky Kids club at school! That would have been superb! Spending time with like-minded kids, conducting experiments, playing with robots and learning new stuff – every Kooky Kids’ dream! I think I should stop talking about my life story and start talking about the book!

I love Robbie’s writing. I wish there was a time machine that I could use and change my timeline! I wish I was born ten years ago so that I could read Kooky Kids’ Club as a kid and realize that life is sometimes harsh but good things happen in the end. Someone is always there, to help us, to remind us that we are and will always be loved. This is what I learned from the book.

Aunt Izzie raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t ask any further questions, much to Maxine’s relief. “I can’t promise it will always happen, but often, horrible people expose themselves. They slip up, and don’t realize people are watching their bad behavior. It might take some time. Sometimes it takes years. But they end up showing their true colors eventually.”

Mr. Matthews is such a boring teacher! I would have any day liked Miss Thompson better. And the cruel school politics, that was a nice touch. I can’t believe that something similar happened in my school too. We always think that schools are free from dirty politics but there are always exceptions, isn’t it? This book was just a good example of that.

My favorite characters are Maxine, Reggie, Lisa, and Lewis. They were not only Kooky but adorable and intelligent. And each of Robbie’s stories has a moral in the end. Something that kids can always remember, even when they grow up. A nice story filled with humor, moral and a tad bit of learning, what else does one need in a children’s fiction?

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Thank you, Shalini and Digital Reads Blog Tours for this wonderful opportunity. Rob’yay’, you are the best!