A most suitable romp for a young read, showcasing the author's love of rap, and more. It's unfortunate the bullying storyline is going to keep this of interest to the target age range only – it's certainly not a fun or engaging plot for any other audience – but the intended reader will be well served. James actually starts the book wanting to be an ace cake maker, but the bully keeps belittling his dreams, and ruining everything. It's only accidentally – and perhaps a bit surprisingly slowly, given the emphasis on it we know to expect from the author, and the title and cover – that he falls into rapping. Very handy then that the country's biggest hip hop star is in a dry patch, and is needing a young upstart to get his mojo back. The book is certainly more than breezy enough for this to appeal to reluctant readers, never once embarrasses itself with sounding desperate, dad jokey or anything else, and has a great twist late on that nobody will see coming. A strong 4/4 stars.

This book wasn't one I enjoyed, I'm afraid. I knew that Romesh Ranganathan had been a teacher, so I was expecting something more enjoyable. Maybe it was aimed at an older age bracket.

For a book which is meant for children this was not an easy read. The writing doesn't flow, it feels clunky and it feels like there are unnecessary words and explanations when you don't need them. It really drags the story. It became frustrating and I couldn't finish for this reason.