Bad Education

The writing is by turns direct and evocative. The names literally indicate the most significant quality of their bearer (Ferg Gottin is easily forgotten and Gross serves up dishes like Maggotty Pizza for lunch). This is a continuing thread from her first children’s book Wisha Wozzariter about 10-year-old Wisha who wants to be a writer—it won the 2013 Crossword Book Award for Children’s Writing. Seen from the children’s point of view, the badness of educators like Master Mynus, Coach Kallus and Principal Perverse is deliciously evoked (often in exaggerated terms). The first time Ferg meets Principal Perverse, for example, he is afforded a ghastly look up the principal’s nostrils: “They flared, and the little hairs inside them trembled. So did Ferg”.