Frankie & Chair By Johan Ingler
Paperback independently published 28th November 2024
ISBN 979834591110
Nine-year-old Danny has an unusual best friend: Chair, an armchair. Together, they write The adventurers of Captin Redtail & Sir Winchester, a comic about a squirrel space pirate and his faithful companion, a robot cupboard. Content with life as it is, Danny dislikes any sort of change. He’s already had to endure the hardest change of all: the loss of his father. But things take a turn when he starts at a new school and meets Frankie, a bold skateboarder whose friendship takes him by surprise. Frankie battles with a looming tragedy of her own, stirring emotions in Danny that he struggles to understand. And with Chair stubbornly opposing Frankie’s presence, the rising tension set off a series of events that none of them could have ever imagined. It’s a rocky journey towards new friendship and an understanding of grief, all mirrored in Danny’s comic world a place where he explores the emotions he’s still learning to process.
MY REVIEW
It’s stands out very clearly that Johan Ingler, has a fantastic imagination to write such an unusual fantasy novel. Frankie & Chair, is such a brilliant story, where Danny has a best friend an armchair that is referred to as Chair ( yes it’s an actual armchair) they write a fabulous story together about Adventures of Captain Redtail and Sir Winchester, it’s a comic about squirrel space pirate and his robot cupboard, yes indeed how funny is that, a cupboard turns into a robot. In this funny but sad, tale Danny who is bullied at school, wants to take Chair to school, but his mother, Tess, won’t let him. Danny strikes up a friendship with a girl named Frankie. I found this absolutely hilarious, Frankie entered the class room on a skateboard. Frankie and Chair is said to be for 8 to 18 years old, but all adults that adore fantasy novels will enjoy this story too. The one thing that was missing for me personally was illustrations to reflect the story, specially if 8-years-olds are going to read this funny tale, all 8-11-year-olds love interesting illustrated books, as helps them understand and become more interested in what they are reading. It would have been great fun to see illustrations of cupboard, that turns into a robot, and the squirrel space pirate, throughout this engaging story. Also for me personally I would have liked on the front cover illustration with Chair of Danny, and Frankie with her skateboard. I do however recommend this story, for 12 years and up , that has has a great mixture, being hilarious, page-turning, entertaining, but with sad grief, emotions too.
Born and raised in Sweden, Johan Ingler started his adult life as a musician: teaching and performing.
To pursue writing, he studied screenwriting at UCLA Extension – where he won first place in the school’s annual feature film screenwriting competition, as well as Best Family Film at The Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest – while working at an LA-based production and management company.
After returning to Europe, writing at an animation studio in Rotterdam, he’s now back in his native Stockholm, writing and developing projects for film and TV. Of course, he’s also working on his next book.
Frankie & Chair is his first novel, independently published. Johan is not represented by any literary agency as a screenwriter or author. https://www.instagram.com/johaningler https://www.frankieandchair.com/
