Yasmin Shah is a ten-year-old girl who is part of a big, noisy family and doesn’t ever speak. Levi is a rude, sassy toy llama, who talks A LOT and has come to wreak havoc in Yasmin’s life.
Yasmin tries everything she can to escape Levi, but she can’t help being dragged along on his crazy antics – and every day brings a new surprise, whether that’s an erupting bin, a flying tuna fish, or a hat made from knickers. Life is never boring with Levi around – and could it be that he has a secret plan to help Yasmin find her voice?
Llama Out Loud is hilarious. And I say that as someone who doesn't often actually laugh out loud at children's books - I appreciate the humour but it just doesn't tickle me, y'know? But Llama Out Loud tickled me, with Levi the Llama's constant quips and Yasmin's crazy family including her Ammi who JUSTCAN'THELPBUTSHOUTEVERYTHING. It's funny. Properly funny.
Llama out Loud follows Yasmin, a ten-year old girl who doesn't speak - the rest of her family do enough of that for her. Living in a tiny house with a huge family has made Yasmin shy away from socialisation and, as a result, her only friends can be found in an old person's daycare centre where she spends her free time playing checkers. When her Aunt buys her the ugliest stuffed llama toy she has ever seen from the local market, Yasmin's life is suddenly turned upside down. Enter Levi, the talking cockney llama who loves a practical joke and will do anything to help Yasmin find "real" friends who aren't octogenarians...
Life with Levi is the whirlwind that Yasmin never wanted and so begins weeks of stuffing Levi into the laundry basket, constantly kicking her bag under the table to get him to shutup and a whole load of trouble that Yasmin has always tried to avoid. Add that to the fact that her teacher has given her new boy Ezra to babysit and Yasmin's quiet life has been well and truly disrupted.
So begins a relationship that you will find in no other book. A young girl and her infuriating talking llama.
I absolutely loved Annabelle Sami's portrayal of Levi throughout, he is the perfect excitable companion that as a reader you can't help to love, even when he is getting Yasmin detention after detention. Yasmin's family also deserve a special mention as they are just the most amazing characters, a perfect caricature of a noisy family that just don't see what's under their noses.
This is the perfect read-aloud for any Key Stage Two class, even a Year Two class would love this and achieving such a breadth of audience is so rare in children's fiction. I can't wait to share it in school when we return properly and I know it will have many classes rolling on the floor with laughter.
The perfect funny book, complete with cockney llama, chocolate digestives, tuna fish and a big dose of annoyance.
Llama Out Loud is published on 9th July 2020. Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced e-copy.
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