The Incredible Record Smashers by Jenny Pearson

A record-smashing, feel-good adventure packed with heart, humour and Guinness World Records from Costa Award-shortlisted Jenny Pearson, and Kid Normal illustrator Erica Salcedo.

Lucy is a fixer of broken things. But there's one thing she can't fix and that's her unhappy mum. Until she comes up with an INCREDIBLE plan. Along with her best friend, Sandesh, Lucy is going to SMASH a world record. Because she's convinced that starry Paul Castellini - Record Smashers TV host and singing legend - is the answer to her mum's problems. But breaking a world RECORD when watermelons, kumquats, two baddies and a 30 cm shatter-resistant school ruler are involved isn't quite as easy as Lucy thought. Can she learn that sometimes happiness doesn't come with a plan?

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Lucy fixes things. That's what she's good at. But fixing her mother's depression seems to be beyond her - until she finds an old photo and has a Brilliant Idea. Roping in a friend from school, and doing her best to keep her eccentric sort-of-aunt in the dark, Lucy begins the best plan ever - and sets in motion an adventure involving a stolen painting, a second hand phone, a washed up 80s pop star and a slightly squashed watermelon named Wilbur.

First things first; this is a fantastic look at parental depression from the point of view of a child. Lucy has a lot of feelings about her mother; sorrow, guilt, even anger, and it's all treated as absolutely normal. It's great for children to see that even 'bad' emotions are normal and can be helpful and talked about with other people.

Apart from that, this is a seriously funny story. Lucy is strong and determined, if a little unaware of other people's feelings. I loved Sandesh, who's just an amazing friend. Even slightly crazy Auntie Sheila is very cool. (It's not cool to make fun of preppers, though.) Strangely, despite a mention of 'the global pandemic' there's no sign of lockdowns or distancing, but perhaps that's an effort to keep from dating the book; with any luck this will all be history soon, and using it in a book will date it to a very specific time period. So perhaps the mention and nothing else was a very deliberate choice.

I really loved this book. It's funny, it's heartfelt, it's surprising. And I would love to see someone catch kumquats from ten metres away...

The Record Smashers publishes on the 29th April, 2021. I was given a free copy and choose to give an honest review.