'This zany school adventure has likeable characters and explores friendship, growing up, and a parent who is fighting their own battles.' The Bookseller
'The author of modern YA classics like A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking trilogy turns his hand to madcap middle grade fiction with the hilarious story of three hall monitors charged with protecting their school from all manner of zany threats.' Waterstones September’s Best Children’s Books 2024
'With each Patrick Ness I read, my admiration grows. Leaving his usual hangout on the young adult corner, he turns up with a school story for slightly younger readers. And yes, it’s the familiar story of school survival, friendship and bullying, but with the twist that all the classmates and their teachers are animals, mixed up with some haphazard references to their size and characteristics, as the source of some clever jokes and situations…Ness expertly mixes perceptive observation of the pressures of school and home life, and the compensations of friendship, with some situations and characters that are so way out that it is a wonder he can get away with it…It’s a tale that is beyond unpredictable: crazy, funny, and tender. Running through the laughter and bravura invention, there is an uplifting faith in our capacity to understand, love and support one another. Sheer unmissable brilliance. A word of admiration, too, for illustrator Tim Miller, who is happy to rise to the challenge of showing us a monitor lizard wrestling a yak to the ground. You will see it nowhere else.' Books for Keeps, Editor’s Choice
'I ADORED this book. I don't know how Patrick Ness manages to get so much pathos into a story about a monitor lizard with France on his knee but he really does. It was sweet, kind, adorable and utterly bonkers but in a gigantic warm hug of a way. More please!' Netgalley Reviewer
'Magnificent! I haven't giggled this much since the Wilf (Georgia Pritchett), Bad Guys (Aaron Blabey) or Mort (Rachel Delahaye) series.' Netgalley Reviewer
'Ness uses an anthropomorphic cast to present the sort of issues human children might face at school every day – bullying, intimidation, violence, fat-shaming and insensitivity to disabilities. His combination of splendid silliness, tenderness and poignancy works effectively, so much so that readers will find themselves laughing frequently. Making the whole thing even funnier are Tim Miller’s zany ink drawings. Underestimating a monitor lizard is not to be advised.' Red Reading Hub
'Enormous fun and filled with utterly bonkers, at times quite surreal, humour, the award-winning writer’s debut middle grade offering is one that will win him a brand new group of fans as we are introduced to lizard Zeke and his mother and friends in the first of an illustrated series by Patrick Ness perfect for its 9+ target audience.' World’s Smallest Library