I read this book to my 9 year old son. Not being UK based some of the culture elements needed explaining, but I found it also very political for such a young age group, with the mother in the book running to be an MP, and talk of policies etc. I felt that an adult would have understood the humour in the digs made at current politics in these elements much better than a child (as I did). I also found some digressions off the main story that were distracting - at one point a 'ven diagram' and a graph were used to make a point, from the author to the reader, but I felt it took away from the story and made no sense to my nine year old. I wondered at the point of this. I found some of the issues also a bit serious for my 9 year old, maybe my 12 year old could have related better, but bullying and feeling that a parent doesn't love or support you are tough topics for a child to deal with. However, I did like the ending with how Mr Stink brought Chloe (the main character) and her family back together at the end. And how Chloe made such a connection to him. A mixture of a book. I wondered if David Walliams actor status has made his books popular.

This book is about a very smelly tramp that people called Mr Stink. People were nice to him; they through coins at his feet and sometimes dropped a scrap of food for the Duchess, Mr Stink's dog, or something like that. But they were never really friendly with him - no one stopped for a chat. Until Chloe did, anyway. Chloe soon made friends with Mr Stink. She saw him pull out shiny cutlery from his dirty tweed jacket and soon got very suspicious. She thought he looked like he had such a great story to tell, and imagined him as a stowaway pirate or something - but she wasn't even close. Chloe's mother and poisonous sister, Annabelle, were nightmares. They were so poshy-poshy-posh-posh that they got so incredibly hateful. Annabelle always wanted Chloe in trouble, and so did Mother. Only Father was nice to poor Chloe. What should she do? Will Mr Stink help her to a new life of happiness...or will these hateful days stay the same? This book was absolutely awesome. It was so funny I had to tell every single bit of it to my parents, as every single bit of it was funny. I loved this book so much I didn't want to put it down at bedtime, even if I was fantastically tired. I had a tinge of excitement whenever I had to stop at a chapter and wait until the next day to read it. Sometimes I even got to sleep dreaming of Chloe and Mr Stink!