The Ice Monster

In this bombastic illustrated adventure set in 1899 London, a 10-year-old orphan named Elsie helps revive a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth from suspended animation, kicking off a series of madcap events across the city and onto the high seas. After running away from the physically and emotionally abusive Wormly Hall: Home for Unwanted Children, where the children are forced to eat cockroaches for every meal, Elsie is drawn to the exhibits of the Natural History Museum. There, she helps a strange old professor hiding in the basement to revive the newest exhibit, a baby mammoth she names Woolly. Determined to save Woolly from a life of captivity and study, Elsie and her newest friend, a professional cleaner named Dotty, must do everything in their power to elude pursuit—even if it means stealing a historic ship and heading for the North Pole. Descriptions of the urchins’ lives, including ruthless beatings and endless classist insults, strike a seriously discomfiting note, but Walliams peppers this frenetic, sometimes anachronistic tale with plenty of scatological humor, resulting in a chaotic slapstick comedy. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)

Update: This review has been adjusted to reflect a change to the final book.