Mr and Mrs Raccoon are terribly worried about their son Ralph. He looks like all the other raccoons, but his behaviour is just awful: he's polite, thoughful, kind and he even says please and thank you! It's time to send Ralph to the School for Bandits, where he can learn to be bad. But perhaps Ralph has a thing or two to teach his classmates.

About the Author

Hannah Shaw graduated from the University of Brighton in 2004 with a degree in illustration, and and since then she has continued to write her own stories and develop characters to illustrate them. She has worked as a freelance illustrator, graphic designer and a visiting lecturer for an Art Foundation course. Evil Weasel, her first picture book, won the Cambridgeshire Children's Book Award in 2009. Hannah lives near Stroud in Gloucestershire with her husband Ben the blacksmith and Ren the crazy long-legged dog.

Prizes

A brilliantly fun book about the rewards of being good!

Reviews

Concerned about their son Ralph's "shockingly polite" behavior, Mr. and Mrs. Raccoon send him to "Bandit School" in this fish-out-of-water story. While Shaw's scraggly raccoons fight, create stink bombs, and throw food, Ralph gets it wrong ("Ralph Raccoon! You must learn to take things that aren't yours without asking," Mrs. Mischief scolds). But when it's time for the Best Bandit in School competition, Ralph learns that he doesn't have to compromise his morals to win. While it can be tough to root for the goody-goody character (especially when the others are having so much fun), the promise of piles of candy for good behavior (and the threat of incarceration for bad) certainly helps. Ages 5-8. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

K-Gr 2-Ralph's parents are worried about him. A good raccoon is not supposed to be clean, tidy, and polite, but their son is all of those things. They are so concerned about his behavior that they enroll him in a school for bandits to learn the bad manners that every raccoon must possess. His teacher, Mrs. Mischief, is disappointed in his progress, and his classmates make fun of him. Given the assignment to return after a vacation with a bag of loot acquired by dishonest means, Ralph surprises them with a heavy sack of goodies and wins the Best Bandit Competition. When the other students learn that he received the treats in return for doing good deeds, he teaches them to change their ways and their perceptions of what a good raccoon should be. He becomes a role model and the pride of his parents. This clever story is packed with childlike humor. The pen-and-ink drawings are in bold colors and are full of action and creative details. There is so much to explore that children will want to read this picture book again and again.-Diane Antezzo, Ridgefield Library, CT (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.