The Horrid Henry stories are read on audiobook by the actress Miranda Richardson and published by Orion Audio. Tired of never getting any birthday or Christmas presents every year, Henry begs his parents to give him one early. Henry and Peter go with Prissy Polly, Pimply Paul and Vomiting Vera to see The Happy Hippos movie in the Cinema.

While waiting for ballet class to start, Henry catches Miss Battle-Axe and Soggy Sid at a really embarrassing sight - Ballroom Dancing. NOTE: This episode takes place during the events of Horrid Henry Wins the Cup, Horrid Henry: The Great Escape and Horrid Henry and the Measly Mascot, except focusing on Peter and in some cases, Fang and Fluffy at home. In the book, the attic has pink and blue flowered wallpaper and carpet. In the episode, it is undecorated, with wooden support beams and no carpet. Henry's weekend gets in grave danger when Moody Margaret stays at his house while her parents go on holiday.At the beginning of the episode, Peter is in the car with Henry on his way to Steve's house. In the book, it's just Henry, Mum and Dad in the car, with Peter having presumably been dropped off at Tidy Ted's. Peter is on the way to win a singing competition, but Moody Margaret wants a piece of the action as well. Henry's class are desperate to watch the football game live, but the only way to do so is to be the Player of the Match in a football game.

Miss Battle-Axe is acting very weird and Henry and his classmates see if Miss B has been controlled by an evil mastermind. Peter is tired of being unnoticed for his good deeds, so he decides to be horrid like Henry for a day. Henry cheats his way through a book-reading contest to win a prize, but it isn't what he hoped for. In the episode at dinnertime, during a power cut, Aunt Ruby and Steve tell Henry the story of the ghost of the rich old man who previously owned the house. This scene isn't shown in the book, with the supposed ghost's origin not discussed. However, it is mentioned that the meal was dreadful and Steve was bragging about his expensive new clothes, toys and trainers. This is an Early Reader book that has everything you need to graduate from picture books to longer chapter books. It has short chapters, but lots of pictures too and the text is clear and easy to read, with simple, familiar words. There are lots of other Horrid Henry books in the Early Readers set, and I remember as a child how much I loved books that had the same characters as ones I’d read before, so these are bound to be popular.

NOTE: This episode takes place during the events of Horrid Henry and the Terrific Teenager, Horrid Henry and the Measly Mascot and Horrid Henry: The Great Escape, except focusing on Henry. Horrid Henry has been around for over 20 years, with over 20 million books sold. I’m surprised I’ve not read him properly before, because he’s a cool little dude. This story was previously published in an anthology, but this new stand-alone version is great because it’s perfectly designed for smaller hands getting to grips, literally and figuratively, with reading alone for the first time. Henry is chosen as one of the entries for the Brainbox of the Year competition, Peter stays with Great-Aunt Greta, while Mum and Dad go on a Great Escape out of Ashton.

Henry sees what the world would be like if he didn’t age. He finds some unexpected paths in the student’s lives. Henry tries to find a way to watch a Gross Class Zero DVD that's so gross that no parent can watch it.

Activities & resources

NOTE: This episode takes place during the events of Horrid Henry and the Measly Mascot, Horrid Henry and the Terrific Teenager and Horrid Henry Wins the Cup, except focusing on Mum and Dad and in some cases, Fang and Fluffy at home. In the attic, Henry is laughing when he accidentally snaps a piece on the bedpost and opens up a secret passageway, revealing a dark tunnel. As Henry goes inside, the door slams shut and he slides down the path, into Steve's room where Aunt Ruby assures Steve that there are no such things as monsters. Suddenly, the wall opens up and Henry emerges, covered in dust and cobwebs. He is unrecognizable and Aunt Ruby and Steve run away, thinking that he is a monster. Henry sees the shelves of Steve's toys and he starts to play with them then laughs as the end credits roll. Henry is worried that his friends Rude Ralph, Aerobic Al and Beefy Bert will see him wear pink underpants. Henry and Peter are tasked to keep quiet so Mum can focus. Henry is eventually motivated to keep quiet when Dad offers to buy a pizza if they remain quiet.

In the book, Henry went ice-skating, to the cinema and played football. In the episode, Henry taunts Steve with his remote-control plane, then hides behind the well and pretends to be the ghost, then sprays Steve with his Goo-Shooter. In the book, the audio tape is called Dr Jekyll's Spooky Sounds. In the episode, it appears to be a recording of Steve making ghost noises. Henry wants a new drone after seeing that Ralph has it and that he gets to miss school. The teachers also don't seem to know that Ralph is controlling a drone. Sweets are being handed out to pupils at school and Henry wants to get one. Henry also has to get given an injection that has a very low chance of being given to a pupil. When Prissy Polly and Vomiting Vera come to visit, Henry ends up in a situation in having to change Vera's stinky nappy.

Creative Play

Getting tired of being punished for little things by Miss Battle-Axe, Henry decides to go on strike.