MG Review: The Terrible Two Get Worse by Mac Barnett and Jory John

The Terrible Two Get Worse
Authors: Mac Barnett and Jory John
illustrations by Kevin Cornell 
Format: ARC
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Number of Pages: 224 
Date Published: January 12th 2016
Source:  Review copy borrowed from fellow blogger.


The duo of Miles and Niles have returned and they are up to their mischievous ways,  pranking poor Principal Barry Barkin and his son Josh.  When one of their pranks ends up getting Principal Barkin fired, Former Principal Barkin (Barry's father) takes over as principal.  With his no nonsense style, he quickly bans all pranks from  Yawnee Valley Science and Letters Academy.  Under the new principal things at Yawnee Valley have gotten worse, so Miles and Niles  choose to ramp up their pranking to try and get Barry Barkin reinstated.  But the new principal  seems to be a worthy opponent when each of the pranks they try to pull has no affect on him, leaving them with only one option, join up with Barry Barkin to pull off the ultimate prank on his father.

Once again, the illustrations by Kevin Cornell are wonderfully detailed and add so much to the humor of the story. I particularly enjoyed the ones of Barry Barkin looking for activities to do after he lost his job. The Terrible Two was one of my favorite stories that my kiddo and I read together last year.  As you can see from my review, we thought the first book was entertaining and the dialogue was just down right fun to read.  I envision the two authors in a room pranking each other as they're writing.   Needless to say,  I had high hopes for The Terrible Two Get Worse.    I was expecting some of the same hijinks as the first book, which there is a considerable amount of, but some of the pranks that the duo played on Former Principal Barkin seemed  a bit over the top for me.  I'm all for a good April Fools joke, but I'm not particularly fond of messing with peoples drinks, especially when it's putting a ghost pepper into someones cup.  Maybe I'm sensitive cause someone pranked me once by putting salt into my soda, which tasted nasty by the way, but ghost peppers would be a whole lot worse.  That one prank aside, I did enjoy reading The Terrible Two Get Worse and I'm curious about where the story will go next.  Especially since Barry Barkin joined them in pranking his father, will the duo become a trio? Or will Miles and Niles give up their pranking ways?