Little Badman and the Time-travelling Teacher of Doom

Little Badman and the Time-travelling Teacher of Doom is an action-packed, hilarious and clever adventure story that will keep children hooked to the end.
Humza (aka Little Badman) is an 11 year old boy who fancies himself as a rapper and, after saving the world from aliens in the first book, he is now intent on becoming a proper secret agent for 'The Agency'. Unfortunately, it seems as though all his plans are scuppered when he is framed for graffiting his school, along with his best friend Umer, and they are both sent to summer school in Pakistan. However, things at summer school are not as they seem and soon Humza and Umer find themselves part of another secret mission where Little Badman becomes Agent Badman. Can the two boys successfully travel through time and avoid The Agency, and the world as they know it, from being completely destroyed?
There are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments in this book. I loved Humza's attitude and 'voice' and thought the dynamic between him and Umer was particularly strong. The illustrations by Aleksei Bitskoff are great too and further make it a brilliant book for reluctant readers.
Although I hadn't read the first book in this series, this didn't matter at all; however, I will definitely read Little Badman and the Invasion of the Killer Aunties now too. This book would be a great addition to the school library and UKS2 classrooms, particularly in a time when we need more diversity on the shelves.

Little Badman and the Time-Travelling Teacher of Doom is the second instalment of the Little Badman series, all revolving around eleven-year-old Humza Khan, a wannabe rapper from Eggington who loves to play practical jokes on everyone. After saving the world once already, Humza is determined that he will now be a successful spy working for "The Agency", but disappointment strikes as he and his best friend Umer are instead sent packing to a summer school in Pakistan for causing trouble one too many times. Although the strict headteacher, Mr Mahmood, threatens the pair with discipline and promises they will be "changed boys", the pair are soon back to their old tricks when they discover that their placement in Pakistan is actually part of the Agency's mission for them. Soon they find themselves desperately hunting down their science teacher, Mr Malik, trying to work out exactly why the Agency want them to follow him and if he really can be dangerous when he seems like the nicest man in school...

Having not read the first Little Badman I was keen to read the sequel, having heard good things about the first, but also because I was interested to see if it would work as a standalone, something which makes it a lot easier to recommend for children as they can just pick it up off the shelf without any prior knowledge. I'm pleased to say that despite it being the second in the series, Little Badman and the Time-Travelling Teacher of Doom really does work on its own. There's a quick rapped recap at the start (good luck if you're reading it aloud) which gives you some backstory to Humza, but aside from that this is a completely fresh story.

Humza as a character is completely hilarious and as the story is told from his perspective I really enjoyed the way his character was shown through the vocabulary chosen. I felt myself reading it in my head in my best South-East accent (completely terrible when you are VERY Northern) and the dialogue is written exactly as you would expect two eleven-year old children to interact.

The plot around the Agency and investigating Mr Malik may appear simple but is far from it as Humza and Umer discover and once it gets going their adventure doesn't stop until the final few pages. There's appearances from random dinosaurs, robots and multiple clones which all play a part in the mission the boys are set and the book is packed with funny moments and action from all directions.

This would work brilliantly throughout Key Stage Two, probably from Year 4 upwards, and is similar to the likes of Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies or My Brother is a Superhero in terms of humour and content.

Time travelling, rapping, adventure and action all rolled into one.