Join inventor Scooter and his alien sidekick, Fizzbee, on their third adventure! For the first time ever, Scooter has NO ideas. How on earth can they save the jam factory from a slimy slug invasion?

Scooter, Fizzbee and Cat have turned McLays jam factory into a tropical jam-making paradise. Delicious! There’s just one problem. SLUGS. Slithering everywhere, eating all the fruit, and in danger of causing the factory to fail its hygiene inspection. Scooter has to think of a way to get them out, pronto. Hyper-creative, he usually has ideas constantly whizzing and whooshing around his head. But something strange has happened … he’s gone blank. SCOOTER HAS NO IDEAS! With evil head slug Mucus Vane taking total control of the factory, the gang will need to summon everything they have to save McLays Jam – and help Scooter rediscover his creativity!

Inventor Scooter, his little alien sidekick, Fizzbee, and their friend Cat are back in Slugs Invade the Jam Factory, the third book in An Alien in the Jam Factory series by Chrissie Sains. I read and reviewed book two, The Treasure Under the Jam Factory, last year but haven’t read book one.

In this latest instalment young Scooter, who owns McLay Jam Factory, has created an indoor tropical paradise for his fruit trees so that his jam always has the freshest and tastiest fruit but there is a problem. Slugs are now everywhere trying to get into the tropical zone and they have an upcoming hygiene inspection.

Scooter has tried lots of ways to stop the slugs but nothing so far has worked and he’s all out of ideas, something that Scooter is never out of and it is unsettling him.

Slugs Invade the Jam Factory is an entertaining and laugh-out-loud children’s middle-grade book. As it is book three in a series I do recommend that reader starts with book one or they may not understand the plot fully.

Throughout there are many black and white illustrations, some large others just a small drawing on a page, each as funny as the next. These drawings make the book and give it an added giggle factor.

Overall, Slugs Invade the Jam Factory is a fabulous read. It will keep the reader amused and invested the whole way through. I love that the author has created a young protagonist with a disability, as Scooter has Cerebral Palsy, as this shows children that having a disability isn’t something to hide away.

Chrissie Sains grew up in Billericay, Essex, where she spent her childhood seeking adventure and finding trouble. Described by her teachers as having a “lively imagination”, Chrissie’s escapades include her attempted rescue of the school’s pet fish and the discovery of a dead body in a field that turned out to be two tyres under a sheet.

She has swum with sharks, scuba-dived shipwrecks and sky-dived from a plane. Chrissie has a background in marketing and events but now writes full time and is a graduate of the Golden Egg Academy and a member of SCBWI. An Alien in the Jam Factory was her first book.