Rocky Lobstar: Time travel tangle! by Rove McManus

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Scholastic Australia, 2020. ISBN: 9781760665067.
Recommended for primary students. This is the second enjoyable and 'krilliant' book in the Rocky Lobstar series by comedian Rove McManus. It is an ideal stepping stone for younger readers moving up from early fiction - it has similar humour to the Treehouse books but comes in at around 100 pages shorter.
Rocky Lobstar is part-boy, part-lobster. He is the star of Felidi's Fabulous Sideshow Carnival which also boasts a bearded strong lady, an alligator magician, a contortionist, a sword swallower and others.
Rocky might burp too loud and use an array of silly lobster-themed exclamations, but he is overall a likeable character with many positive qualities. He is energetic, quick thinking, cheerful, a responsible owner of his pet sea-pig, Bubbles, and is always polite (even to machines). He has a great sense of daring and humour, is a loyal friend and never gives up.
In this adventure Rocky and his best mate Goober accidentally break a prized tea set belonging to Carnival boss, Mr Felidi. Luckily a visiting celebrity professor happens to have left her new time machine at the carnival. What follows is a journey that stretches the imagination, tangles time and includes some great rhymes along the way.
McManus holds a fine art qualification along with a lifelong passion for drawing and animation, and he has packed humour and liveliness into every page and drawing in this book. The story leads to a wonderful double page illustration bursting with amusing characters, where you find more fun details the longer you look. Themes: Creatures, Travel, Friends.
Kylie Grant

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