A girl powered Walliams-esk, romping read!

There is one phrase to describe The Matilda Effect by Ellie Irving and that’s ‘GIRL POWER’!

Matilda is a young, enthusiastic inventor who is overshadowed by her male and somewhat useless counterparts. After losing to the ultra-untalented Thomas Thomas at Arnos Yarm’s School Science Competition AND learning her grandmother was an astrophysicist who discovered a planet over fifty years ago but had the discovery stolen by her boss, a MAN, Matilda finds herself on a very important mission. She has to stop Professor Smocks from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for discovering Granny Joss’s planet and proving SHE found it.

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Adventure across four countries in thirty-one hours without passports or money

The story plots Matilda and her granny’s course as they attempt to gatecrash the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm. They travel 1128 miles across four countries in thirty-one hours without passports or money meeting some interesting, if unsavoury, characters along the way. They find themselves unwittingly mixed up in all sorts of shady dealings, ending up on the wrong side of the law.

Humorous but not vapid, packing punch and power

Ellie Irving’s strong voice makes you laugh out loud but at the same time delivers a powerful and relevant message about equality in the workplace particularly in the scientific field. The Matilda Effect is an actual term defining a bias against acknowledging the achievements of women in science and our Matilda lists several examples of said offences along with some rather interesting facts like ‘A medium-sized cumulus cloud weighs the same as 80 elephants’ – but we’re ok thanks to gravity!

If you want a fun, romping David Walliams-esk read then you have it with Ellie Irving’s The Matilda Effect but it also carries a very important message to young female ears: if you believe in something, don’t give up no matter what.

If you discovered a planet, what would you call it?

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