Slime | Review

His name is Ned, and he's the eleven-year-old hero of Slime, a delightfully funny novel by English author David Walliams. He lives on Kakken, a small island crammed with peculiar characters (many of them adults who resent children because they envy them), along with his parents and sister Jemina. This adventurous protagonist has one distinctive feature, woven into the story with complete ease: his legs haven't worked since childhood, so Ned zooms around Kakken in a wheelchair. The chair isn't treated as a limitation, or a tragedy, or even remarked upon—it's simply the vehicle that carries him through his exploits. When Jemina reaches for the handles, she says, "Let me push you." But Ned replies, "No need. Why don't you hop on instead? (…) This chair is fantastic! I'll show you what it can do."