It’s Ivan’s first day at his new school, and Boris is told to look after him, and translate for him, because Ivan can only speak Russian. After all, St Edmund’s is a civilised school. Only problem is, Ivan isn’t civilised. So when Ivan starts greeting people as ‘lowly shivering worms’, and asking for words in English like ‘crush’ and ‘mutilate’, Boris realises that he’s going to have his work cut out for him. And that’s just the start of the day …

Anne Fine’s fun school stories have been delighting children for more than 20 years, winning her awards such as the Smarties Book Award and Carnegie Medal along the way.