Harry the Poisonous Centipede

Harry the Poisonous Centipede is a novel by Lynne Reid Banks, illustrated by Tony Ross. "First published in hardback in Great Britain by Collins 1996", and in paperback the same year, it was later published in a paperback edition by HarperCollins Children's Books in 2005, with the ISBN 0007213093.

There are two sequels: Harry the Poisonous Centipede's Big Adventure and Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to Sea.

The novel is about Harry (actually Hxzltl, as "There are no vowel-sounds in Centipedish"), his mother Bkvlbbchk (Belinda), and Harry's best friend George (Grnddjl), another young centipede. George lives on his own, calling Harry a sissy for still living with his mother. Belinda does some mothering of George, to the point of spanking him (with each of her 42 legs in turn) when he did wrong.