The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh

By Helen Rutter

I chose to read this book as it was one of the recommended reads in the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award organised by the my school and was announced overall winner!

It was also short-listed for many other awards in 2022 such as the Blue Peter Book Award, Costa Childen’s Book Award & the Read for Empathy Collection.

It is a funny and sometimes sad book about a boy about to start secondary School. I’ve just started secondary school myself so I could understand some of the feelings that the character was going through.

The story is about an 11 year old boy called Billy Plimpton who dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian when he grows up. Billy is a funny kid with some great jokes and some awful dad jokes too! The main problem is that Billy has a stammer. Sometimes he struggles to say things especially in front of strangers and he worries that it will stop him achieving his dream.

Starting secondary school, trying to fit in & make new friends is hard enough but Billy has the added worry of how he will be treated by the other kids because is different and trying to avoid the school bully.

I was lucky enough to meet the author Helen Rutter when she came to visit our school to receive her award. Her own son has a stammer and she wanted to write a book that he could enjoy that would include someone like him. I think it is really important for children to read books which have characters that they resemble. Our world is full of many different types of people and so that we can learn about them – they need to be represented in our books.

I enjoyed reading Billy’s story and reading the jokes out loud to my family.

My score: 5/5