Meredith Badger, All Together (The Tinklers Three), Hardie Grant Egmont, Dec 2016, 512pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781760127756
Kids from a circus family are going to be unusual, and the three Tinkler kids are definitely different. Suspend your disbelief, and join the Tinklers while their parents are away with the circus. Mila is the ideas girl – some of her ideas are good, like the one about ice-cream for breakfast, and some, like the one about the bird’s nest hat, aren’t. The youngest Tinkler has decided that she’s a turtle. Marcus, in the middle, thinks that he’s the most normal of the three siblings, but the narrator isn’t so sure.
From their challenge to get to the clock tower without touching the ground even once, to getting the better of the terrible Spatleys, life is a fun and bizarre series of adventures with the Tinklers Three.
This collection of the six Tinkler stories is loaded with imagination, and off-beat problem-solving. I can see these stories working well in a classroom to spark interesting ideas, and Mila’s funny rules could have young readers coming up with their own creative rules, and then expanding that to see what would happen if you stuck to them.
These stories are fun and funny, and perfect for young readers aged about six to nine.
Reviewed by Emily Clarke
