Freddy vs School by Neill Cameron

A ‘Hot Contender’ for the Big Book Award 2022 shortlist.

Freddy is proud to be a robot boy and loves to showcase his formidable strength, powerful lasers and awesome rocket boosters at his regular, human school. Unfortunately, the headteacher doesn’t share his enthusiasm so draws up a strict code of conduct, banning the use of all robotic abilities on school grounds. If Freddy breaks the rules three times, he will be expelled.

Although outraged at the new rules, Freddy tries hard to abide by them, but this proves to be extremely difficult: he feels compelled to fight injustice by standing up to Henrik when he bullies the new boy, and he cannot possibly turn down the challenge of ‘dare-off deathmatch’ from his best friend Fernando. He knows he should keep his head down and blend in, but that’s just not Freddy’s style; what’s the point of having amazing skills if he’s not allowed to use them and, more importantly, what if nobody likes him if he’s just an ordinary boy?

This funny, light-hearted chapter book examines what it feels like to be different and explores issues of friendship, jealousy and bullying. Lively black-and-white drawings add to the hilarity of this entertaining tale, which is ideal for confident junior readers.

Published by David Fickling Books

About the author & illustrator

Neill Cameron is a cartoonist and writer, creator of the comic books Mega Robo Bros,  Mo-Bot High, The Pirates of Pangaea  (with Daniel Hartwell), Tamsin and the Deep (with Kate Brown), and the instructional How To Make Awesome Comics. Since 2011 his work has appeared in the weekly children’s comic The Phoenix. In 2016 Mega Robo Bros and Tamsin and the Deep were both shortlisted for the British Comics Awards. In 2017, Mega Robo Bros won the Excelsior Award Jr, a national comic award voted for by school and library reading groups across the UK. In 2018 Mega Robo Bros was chosen as one of the best children’s comics of the year by both the New York Public Library and the Schools Library Journal.

Neill also works as an artist-in-residence at The Story Museum in Oxford, where he contributed several large-scale comic strip installations and continues to be involved in comics-based education and activities, including running a monthly Comics Club group for young cartoonists.

Neill frequently travels the country giving workshops in schools, libraries and at festivals, and is a passionate advocate for the role comics can play in developing literacy skills and encouraging children’s creativity.