Hello dear readers! This is Miss A. Misra here after quite a while. (I really need to change that intro) I have read a good number of books while I was offline, and one of them includes The Midnight Gang by David Walliams. (please note that I did not buy this book though I have read it. How? I borrowed it from a friend)
I started reading it yesterday and it ended today.
Basically, I had just finished watching the first of “Attack on Titans” and decided that, well. Since I have nothing else to do, I’ll just finish the book real quick.
Firstly, the book is illustrated almost every few pages, which makes it easier to read and more fun for children. The drawings are quite decent and given in just the right places.
Second of all, the plot is very wholesome and sweet. It’s about a gang of children who are admitted in the children’s ward in Lord Funt’s hospital. They set about, fulfilling each other’s dreams in the most creative methods possible. For example. one boy wanted to fly. The children took all the helium balloons in the hospital and tied it to him so that he could float safely up the stairs and after popping a few balloons, float down again. There’s George, who loves eating and had his tonsils removed. Amber, who broke all her limbs because she fell off her bunk (don’t ask me how, I don’t know how.) Then there’s sarcastic Robin, who got some operation on his eyes and has to wear a bandage around them and can’t see. There’s Sally, who is so ill she almost always sleeps and has the tiniest amount of hair left. (I’m serious, almost all the hair on her head has fallen off) Then the new patient, Tom, who got hit by a cricket ball on the head. Together they form the midnight gang who set about at midnight (which is why they are called the midnight gang, as you probably have guessed by this time, it’s pretty obvious to me, but anyway-) And there is also last but not the least Porter, whose real name is unknown, who helps the children in their work. He has a lopsided face and one leg which is shorter than the other, however is very kind and generous even though he has no home of his own. Of course, there HAS to be an evil antagonist in a plot like this, who in this case is the matron, who hates children but takes care of the children’s ward. (???, I’m sorry, that makes no sense to me either, but it is what it is.)
Well, Tom’s parents live abroad and he feels lonely and unwanted because they hardly ever write to him in boarding school. He settles in the children’s ward quite well and even gets entry to the midnight gang (on the condition that he should always push Amber around on her wheelchair because no one else wanted to do so, on account of her being so terribly bossy. But that’s hardly the point, is it?) They have three main missions left to accomplish, Ambers’ (visiting the South Pole) George’s (flying) and Sally’s (living a wonderful life because she feels that since she’s always so ill, it would be a change for her to finally experience something else rather than lying in bed all day). The mean matron keeps trying to spoil their fun, so George puts a sleeping pill in the chocolates she eats at night, causing her to sleep all the time. That leaves the three children free to do whatever.
But they don’t include Sally in these adventures, since she is too ill and fragile. Tom, however, has no major problem with him, so he could join, as I mentioned before. The whole book is basically run on this whole plot.
The third thing I really liked about this story is that there is a whole lot of humour. Sarcasm, irony, simple jokes, or just random circumstances that appear funny to me for no reason,the full deal is packed into the book. However, the ending was rather too sudden, and I felt sad that (spoiler here) Tom just had to leave all his new friends .The reason you will find out when you read the book.Its unfair that everything just ends right when it was getting interesting. But if you think about it, no one can stay in a hospital forever and ever, no matter how ill you are.Atleast it’s not a good thing then.But since I am not discussing serious issues here this book review ends here.
Well, that was “The Midnight Gang” By David Walliams. I hope you liked this article. See you in the next one! Goodbye, signing off~
Midnight Gang by David Walliams :Book Review by Young Reader
