Elvie really wants a puppy. Instead, she gets a fish. When Mum comes back from the pet shop with Fluff the goldfish, Elvie refuses to feel disappointed. She’s sure she can train Fluff to do amazing tricks. It might just take a bit of time. At first, things don’t exactly go swimmingly. Fluff can’t beg, sit or bark on command. But he can fart. Will Fluff’s smelly talent turn him into the world’s first performing goldfish?

A cheeky delight from comedy king Michael Rosen

Funny pictures by Horrid Henry illustrator Tony Ross

Michael Rosen is one of the UK’s top children’s authors

He served as Children’s Laureate from 2007-2009

Product Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781849395274

Publisher

Andersen Press Ltd

Date published

January 3rd, 2013

Lexile measure

610L Lexiles are the global standard in reading assessment. They are unique as they are able to measure a child and a book on the same scale – ensuring the right book gets to the right child at the right time.

For more details see What is a lexile?.

Accelerated Reader

AR book level: 3.1; Lower years; 0.5 points

Condition

New

UK edition

Author/Illustrator

Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen was born into a London Jewish family, the son of two distinguished educators – Connie and Harold Rosen. Michael’s childhood was rich in books, stories and conversation.

Michael attended Middlesex Hospital Medical School for a year but transferred to Wadham College, Oxford to study English Literature. At Oxford, he started to realise his ambition of acting (as well as writing and directing). Michael still says that if he wasn’t a poet, he’d like to be an actor. Anyone who has seen him in performance knows that he already is!

The narrowness of his course of study proved a source of dissatisfaction and Michael began looking outside his recommended reading to contemporary working, class ballads. He retains a passion for street rhymes, popular songs and folk stories.

Michael Rosen has been writing poetry since the age of 18. His first collection, Mind Your Own Business, was published in 1974. Although it was not planned as a collection for children, it appeared on Andre Deutsch’s children’s list. This, says Michael, was a turning point – “Suddenly it all fused: the writing, the performing, the popular audience. It was just incredibly exhilarating.”

He quickly made a name for himself with his collections of humorous verse and picture books for children. He is described as one of the most significant figures in contemporary children’s poetry, drawing closely on his own childhood experiences, and ‘telling it as it was’ in the ordinary language children actually use.

Michael is now a poet, author and broadcaster, and was Children’s Laureate from 2007-2009.

Tony Ross

Multi-award-winning Tony Ross has become one of the best-known creators of original and traditional picture books and his work has been published all over the world. As well as his own books, he has illustrated books for authors such as Roald Dahl, Paula Danziger and Michael Palin.