• Author: Mark Towse
• Publisher: D&T Publishing
• Publishing year: 2021
• Number of pages: 104 (e-book)
• ISBN: 9798728567332
• My rating: 5/5

Blurb: (according to Amazon)

Nana: A term of endearment used in some countries for one’s Grandma. Some say the title is derived from the Italian word for Grandmother, Nonna. Another theory is that it stems from the word Nanny, i.e., someone who takes care of children.Meet Olly’s nana, Ivy. It takes more than clean dentures, brandy, and bingo night to keep this one happy!Nana Ivy lives in Newhaven Crescent, where most of the other residents are past their expiry date and all kinds of batshit crazy, the kind of place where you hang your sanity up at the door.Being the matriarchal type, Ivy cares for the other residents as though they were kin, so of course, it’s of enormous concern when their veins begin to blacken and they start shedding skin, not to mention the glistening things crawling out of their hair. They’re pushing their luck, and Nana Ivy knows it. Did I mention she has a dark secret?Young Olly doesn’t know what to make of it when he comes to visit, but he’s about to find out there’s more to his nana than cough drops and slippers. Oh yes, he’s in for a long night.

My thoughts:

Nana’s been a bad, bad girl!

Do you remember when you were a young lad or a young gal, you had to visit the senior home and there was this clinical smell, a mixture of old people and bleach?

Well, Mark Towse brought that smell to my nostrils with this story! 😂

I can’t say very much about it, to avoid spoiling things but in short: Alex, who does a paper round, goes to Newhaven Crescent where a lot of old folks live. But here they seem old and crazy. One of them is Nana Ivy, Olly’s grandmother. And he has stay overnight while his parents need to talk about their marriage. But Alex and Olly, both twelve year olds, don’t like it in Newhaven Crescent. And both will learn what crazy, old folks are really up to!

This was a very fun read! It was funny, scary and well written, very fastpaced. Never knew senior citizens could be so scary 😦🤣

Next on my list will be ‘Crows’, also by the same author. I’m looking forward to reading that one as well!