The following review was written by Charles Conway of
Clear as Crystal Web Design
Matty Boy & the Secret Pigeon Racket
A children's book by : Anita Hunt
Cover Illustration by: Sarah Miskelly
About Matty Boy
Matt Franks is 8 years old and loves Norwich City Football Club. Like most 8 year olds, Matt dreams of being a rock star and living a life in the spotlight. Unlike most 8 year olds however, Matt lives in foster care and has spent a lot of time moving between foster homes and regularly experiences the terror of starting a new school.
Friends are hard to come by when you don't stay in one place for long, so when Matt goes to live with the Joy family, he doesn't really expect things to be very different, especially when he attracts the unwelcome attentions of the school bully. He couldn't have been more wrong!
About Percy The Pigeon
Percy the Pigeon (follow him on Twitter) meets Matt after running away from home and breaking his wing. Percy is the son of "The Don", the head of the Pigeon Mafia, also known as "The Secret Pigeon Racket". The Don has certain expectations of his son, and Percy just doesn't want to live up to them.
Friendship, support and fun!
Once Matt gets over the shock of meeting a talking pigeon, he finds true friendship. Matt and Percy find that they are able to help each other to become more confident and overcome their fears. Their friendship culminates in a thrilling adventure where Matt becomes The Mighty, The Magnificent, Matty-Boy! Striking fear into the heart of the Secret Pigeon Racket at the very mention of his name, Matty-Boy & Percy find out that by working together and trusting each other, they can achieve anything! (but only after watching a few James Bond films for inspiration...)
A serious message
Although the story is great fun, and will appeal greatly to children, there's a serious message too. Percy helps Matt to tell his mentor at school that he's being bullied, and to get help, demonstrating to children that they too can get help if they are being bullied, and that they don't have to deal with it alone.
Author and trained Pastoral Youth Worker Anita Hunt will donate 50p from every book sale to "Bullying UK", which will allow them to deal with 5 calls from bullied children for every sale.
Matty Boy & The Secret Pigeon Racket" is available for only £8.99 plus P&P
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Matty-Boy & the Secret Pigeon Racket
Review by Stephen CVSERVICES4U
"Fantastic read. My daugther thoroughly enjoyed this book. Beautifully illustrated and well written. I highly recommend this book that deals with bullying and its affect to everyone!"
"Anita is a talented, compassionate lady. Her commitment to anti-bullying is applauded. Her book is inspirational and a thoroughly good read."
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Matty-Boy & the Secret Pigeon Racket
Sarah Arrow from Arrow Light Haulage has written a thoughtful blog in response to reading the book.
Please visit her blog What's on in Essex
